小柯机器人

英国布里斯托大学Stephen Mann、Mei Li等研究人员合作实现细菌源原生细胞的活体材料组装。这一研究成果于2022年9月14日在线发表在国际学术期刊《自然》上。

据研究人员介绍，推进自下而上地构建具有高度组织复杂性和多样化功能的人造细胞，仍然是生物和非生物物质之间的一个尚未解决的问题。

为了应对这一挑战，研究人员开发了一种活体材料组装工艺，该工艺基于对单个共渗微滴内空间分离的细菌菌落的捕获和现场处理，用于内源性构建有膜的、分子密集的、成分、结构和形态复杂的合成细胞。细菌源原生细胞继承了不同的生物成分，表现出多功能的细胞模拟特性，并且可以内源性地重塑，并包括一个空间分割的DNA-组蛋白核状凝聚物、膜化水泡和F-肌动蛋白原细胞骨架丝的三维网络。该集合体由植入的活大肠杆菌细胞产生的ATP提供生化能量，产生一个具有变形虫般外部形态和综合生命特征的细胞仿生系统。

这些研究结果证明了一种自下而上构建功能性原生微装置的细菌源策略，并为制造新的合成细胞模块和增强的活体/合成细胞构造提供了机会，在工程合成生物学和生物技术中具有潜在的应用。

附：英文原文

Title: Living material assembly of bacteriogenic protocells

Author: Xu, Can, Martin, Nicolas, Li, Mei, Mann, Stephen

Issue&Volume: 2022-09-14

Abstract: Advancing the spontaneous bottom-up construction of artificial cells with high organizational complexity and diverse functionality remains an unresolved issue at the interface between living and non-living matter1,2,3,4. Here, to address this challenge, we developed a living material assembly process based on the capture and on-site processing of spatially segregated bacterial colonies within individual coacervate microdroplets for the endogenous construction of membrane-bounded, molecularly crowded, and compositionally, structurally and morphologically complex synthetic cells. The bacteriogenic protocells inherit diverse biological components, exhibit multifunctional cytomimetic properties and can be endogenously remodelled to include a spatially partitioned DNA–histone nucleus-like condensate, membranized water vacuoles and a three-dimensional network of F-actin proto-cytoskeletal filaments. The ensemble is biochemically energized by ATP production derived from implanted live Escherichia coli cells to produce a cellular bionic system with amoeba-like external morphology and integrated life-like properties. Our results demonstrate a bacteriogenic strategy for the bottom-up construction of functional protoliving microdevices and provide opportunities for the fabrication of new synthetic cell modules and augmented living/synthetic cell constructs with potential applications in engineered synthetic biology and biotechnology.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05223-w

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05223-w

Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html