Physics of minimal living matter: Bottom up assembly of protocells

by Steen Rasmussen (Southern Denmark Univ)

Tuesday 9 Apr 2013, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Stockholm

Nordita WEST 122:026 (Nordita West/cond matter)

For close to ten years our team has methodically implemented component by component of a minimal living molecular machine composed of an information-, metabolic- and container component. Using a systemic approach, where all components mutually support each other, we have experimentally demonstrated how replicable chemical information can control metabolic production of and replication of the system components. In this talk I present and discuss the principle problems and challenges associated with assembling minimal life from the bottom up, how we may view minimal life and how we may interpret the origin of information from physicochemical processes. I further demonstrate how our systems design couples self-assembly (equilibrium processes) and self-organization (non-equilibrium processes) to generate overall systems self-replication, information inheritance and evolution. I seek to illustrate the key processes, components and the overall systems dynamics by simple mathematical models as well as more detailed 3D molecular simulations. References: Cape, J.L., et al., (2012) Bioconjugate Chem. 23: 2014–2019. DeClue, M. S., et al., (2009). J. Am. Chem. Soc., 131:931-933. Fellermann, H. & Rasmussen, S. (2011). Entropy, 13:1882-1903 Maurer, S.E., et al., (2011). Chemphyschem., 12:828-35. Munteanu, A. et al., (2007) Phil. Trans. Royal Soc.; vol. 362, no. 1489; pp. 1847-1856. Rasmussen, S., et al., (2003). Artif Life, 9:269-316. Rasmussen, S., et al., (2004). Science, 303:963–965 Rasmussen, S., et al., Protocells: Bridging nonliving & living matter, MIT Press, 2009 Rasmussen, S et al., Proceedings 13th Conf. Gen. & Evol. Comp. (GECCO 11). ACM (2011) pp 15-20 Rouchelau, T., et al., (2007) Phil. Trans. Royal Soc.; vol. 362, nr. 1486; pp. 1841-1845. -------