Perspectives
Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 8, 1018-1024 (December 2007) | doi:10.1038/nrm2287
Focus on: Lipids
Opinion: Cell evolution and the problem of membrane topology
Gareth Griffiths1 About the author
Abstract
Cells somehow evolved from primordial chemistry and their emergence depended on the co-evolution of the cytoplasm, a genetic system and the cell membrane. It is widely believed that the cytoplasm evolved inside a primordial lipid vesicle, but here I argue that the earliest cytoplasm could have co-evolved to high complexity outside a vesicle on the membrane surface. An invagination of the membrane, aided by an early cytoskeletal system, may have formed the first cells — initially within primordial vesicles.
Author affiliations
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Gareth Griffiths is at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.
Email: gareth.griffiths@embl-heidelberg.de
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