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Self-reproducing catalytic micelles as nanoscopic protocell precursors

Nature Reviews Chemistry volume 5, pages 870–878 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Protocells at life’s origin are often conceived as bilayer-enclosed precursors of life, whose self-reproduction rests on the early advent of replicating catalytic biopolymers. This Perspective describes an alternative scenario, wherein reproducing nanoscopic lipid micelles with catalytic capabilities were forerunners of biopolymer-containing protocells. This postulate gains considerable support from experiments describing micellar catalysis and autocatalytic proliferation, and, more recently, from reports on cross-catalysis in mixed micelles that lead to life-like steady-state dynamics. Such results, along with evidence for micellar prebiotic compatibility, synergize with predictions of our chemically stringent computer-simulated model, illustrating how mutually catalytic lipid networks may enable micellar compositional reproduction that could underlie primal selection and evolution. Finally, we highlight studies on how endogenously catalysed lipid modifications could guide further protocellular complexification, including micelle to vesicle transition and monomer to biopolymer progression. These portrayals substantiate the possibility that protocellular evolution could have been seeded by pre-RNA lipid assemblies.

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Fig. 1: Dynamics of micellar proliferation.
Fig. 2: Advantages of micellar systems for priming early life.
Fig. 3: Representative cases of micellar catalysis.
Fig. 4: Selection in heterogeneous catalytic micelles.
Fig. 5: Micellar reproduction and evolution.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Minerva Foundation through the grant “The emergence and evolution of early life under extreme planetary conditions” and by an EU Horizon 2020 (DC-ren) grant (Drug combinations for rewriting trajectories of renal pathologies in type II diabetes). The authors thank D. Segrè, D. Tawfik and A. Futerman for critically reading the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

    Amit Kahana & Doron Lancet

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  1. Amit Kahana
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The authors contributed equally to all aspects of the article.

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Correspondence to Doron Lancet.

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Glossary

Accretion

Gradual growth in size by external addition.

Breed true

Producing offspring of a similar breed or variety.

Catalytic closure

A state of a molecular network where the formation of each molecule in the set is catalysed by at least one set member.

Fission

A splitting or breaking up into parts.

Gemini lipid

A class of lipids containing two head groups and two aliphatic tails linked by a spacer.

Palisade layer

The border region between the polar head groups and the hydrophobic core.

Parsimonious

Related to the simplest explanation of a phenomenon.

Prebiotic

Occurring or existing before the emergence of life.

Primordial

Ancient, existing from the beginning.

Quasispecies

A group of highly similar molecules or organisms.

Reduced dimensionality

A phenomenon in which reactions are speeded up by reactants adsorbing to a 2D surface.

Stern layer

The immediate proximity of the micellar surface.

Terrestrial infall

Incoming extraterrestrial material that falls on Earth.

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Kahana, A., Lancet, D. Self-reproducing catalytic micelles as nanoscopic protocell precursors. Nat Rev Chem 5, 870–878 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-021-00329-7

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