Stano Pasquale, Altamura Emiliano, Mavelli Fabio
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies (DiSTeBA), University of Salento, Ecotekne, Lecce, Italy.
Chemistry Department, University "Aldo Moro," Bari, Italy.
Commun Integr Biol. 2017 Nov 3;10(5-6):e1365993. doi: 10.1080/19420889.2017.1365993. eCollection 2017.
Important progresses have been achieved in the past years in the field of bottom-up synthetic biology, especially aiming at constructing cell-like systems based on lipid vesicles (liposomes) entrapping both biomolecules or synthetic compounds. These "synthetic cells" mimic the behaviour of biological cells but are constituted by a minimal number of components. One key aspect related to this research is the energetic needs of synthetic cells. Up to now, high-energy compounds have been given in order to drive biochemical reactions inside the vesicle lumen. In order to be autonomous, synthetic cells must produce their own biochemical energy from available energy sources. At this aim we started a long-term research program focused on the construction of photoautotrophic synthetic cells, starting with the reconstitution, in active and highly oriented form, of the photosynthetic reaction centre in giant lipid vesicles (Altamura et al., PNAS 2017, 114, 3837-3842). Here we comment this first milestone by showing the synthetic biology context wherein it is developed, the future steps, and the experimental approach that might allow such an achievement.
在过去几年里，自下而上的合成生物学领域取得了重要进展，特别是致力于构建基于包裹生物分子或合成化合物的脂质囊泡（脂质体）的类细胞系统。这些“合成细胞”模仿生物细胞的行为，但由最少数量的组件构成。与这项研究相关的一个关键方面是合成细胞的能量需求。到目前为止，一直通过提供高能化合物来驱动囊泡腔内的生化反应。为了实现自主，合成细胞必须从可用能源中产生自身的生化能量。为此，我们启动了一项长期研究计划，专注于构建光合自养合成细胞，首先是以活性和高度定向的形式在巨型脂质囊泡中重建光合反应中心（阿尔塔穆拉等人，《美国国家科学院院刊》2017年，第114卷，第3837 - 3842页）。在此，我们通过展示其所处的合成生物学背景、未来步骤以及可能实现这一目标的实验方法来对这第一个里程碑进行评论。
