Study of enzymes inside liquid-liquid phase separated crowded droplets

我们最近首次发现，具有酶活性的人工原始细胞能够在溶液中遵循化学梯度移动。由液滴内的酶产生的pH变化以趋化方式驱动液滴移动。我们通过生物化学、影像学和流体力学等研究手段，详细探讨了其分子机制。我们还证明，这些液滴能够重建一个简单的线性蛋白代谢途径。我们目前正在研究我们的液-液相分离的原始细胞内的几种酶的催化效率。

We recently discovered for the first time that enzymatically active artificial protocells are able to move in solution following a chemical gradient. The pH change generated by the enzyme within the droplets drives the droplets movement in chemotactic manner. We have investigated on the molecular mechanism in detail by means of biochemical, imaging and fluid mechanism studies. We also demonstrated that these droplets are able to reconstitute a simple and linear protometabolic pathway. We are currently studying the catalytic efficiency of several enzymes inside our liquid-liquid phase separated protocells.