1. Steps towards de-novo life:compartmentalization and feedback mechanisms in synthetic self-replicating systems
- Author
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Monreal Santiago, Guillermo, Monreal Santiago, Guillermo, Monreal Santiago, Guillermo, and Monreal Santiago, Guillermo
- Abstract
Making artificial (“de-novo”) life from completely synthetic molecules is a challenging endeavour that could help us understand life, detect it, and gain some insight on its origins. The aim of this thesis is to combine in a single system several properties that are fundamental to living systems – specifically self-replication, compartmentalization, and metabolism. This work is based on self-replicating fibres that emerge from a dynamic combinatorial library. Through the thesis, we study their self-replication mechanism using HS-AFM, use complex coacervates to compartmentalize them, and combine them with photocatalytic cofactors to obtain the first synthetic example of a light-driven protometabolism. Finally, we combine this protometabolic feedback loop with out-of-equilibrium conditions to design a synthetic oscillator. The results shown here are first steps towards the synthesis of de-novo life, and can lead in the future to more complex processes such as ecological relationships or Darwinian evolution.
- Published
- 2020