Stano Pasquale
Research Centre Enrico Fermi, Compendio del Viminale, 00184 Rome, Italy.
Orig Life Evol Biosph. 2007 Oct;37(4-5):439-44. doi: 10.1007/s11084-007-9086-1. Epub 2007 Jul 3.
In this short article I discuss the relevance of two aspects of vesicle reactivity that are germane to understand the role of compartments in the origin of early cells. Studies of vesicle self-reproduction indicate that simple vesicles can grow and divide, maintaining inside most of their content and giving rise to a simple autopoietic system. New aspects of vesicle reactivity are also introduced, such as selection and competition processes within vesicle populations, emphasizing the concepts of vesicle diversity, inter-vesicles and vesicles-environment interactions, intended as synthetic analogs of primitive 'ecological' processes.
