The Minimal Cell The Biophysics of Cell Compartment and the Origin o
In the last ten years there has been a considerable increase of interest on the notion of the minimal cell. With this term we usually mean a cell-like structure containing the minimal and sufficient number of components to be defined as alive, or at least
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Pier Luigi Luisi Pasquale Stano ●
Editors
The Minimal Cell The Biophysics of Cell Compartment and the Origin of Cell Functionality
Editors Pier Luigi Luisi Biology Department University of Roma Tre Rome Italy [email protected]
Pasquale Stano Biology Department University of Roma Tre Rome Italy [email protected]
ISBN 978-90-481-9943-3 e-ISBN 978-90-481-9944-0 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-9944-0 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
The main reason behind this book was the necessity to give a proper account to the considerable interest that arose in the last ten years on the notion of minimal cell. This is broadly defined as the cell containing the minimal and sufficient number of components to be defined as alive, or at least capable of displaying some of the fundamental functions of a living cell. Obviously such a definition encompasses entire families of semi-synthetic cells, where the term semi-synthetic indicates that most of the basic components (DNA, enzymes) are extant natural components, whereas the compartments are usually ad hoc constructed vesicles (generally liposomes, i.e. vesicles made out of lipids). Today this research program is seen as part of the broader scenario of synthetic biology, and in particular of “chemical synthetic biology” (Luisi 2007), as indeed the operational procedures attending their production in the laboratory are exquisitely chemical (and not so much genetic manipulations as most of the engineering synthetic biology). The story of the minimal cell on the basis of liposomes started in the early 1990s mostly in my laboratory at the ETH Zürich, where we set up methods to perform complex molecular biology reactions inside liposomes, for example the polymerase chain reaction (Oberholzer et al. 1995a), or the incorporation of the entire ribosome machinery inside liposomes with the production of the first polypeptide chain (Oberholzer et al. 1999). I believe the term “minimal cell”, related to the synthetic biology using liposomes, appeared in that 1995 paper with Oberholzer (Oberholzer et al. 1995b). At that time we were practically the only ones in the field, but at the turn of the century several valid groups begun to work with liposomal minimal cells, among which Yomo (Yu et al. 2001; Ishikawa et al. 2004), Noireaux and Libchaber (2004), Yoshikawa and coworkers (Nomura et al. 2003; Tsumoto et al. 2001); and well known people like David Deamer dealt with the subject (Chakrabarti et al. 1994, Pohorille and De
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