Issue 8, 2021

Spontaneous emergence of membrane-forming protoamphiphiles from a lipid–amino acid mixture under wet–dry cycles

Abstract

Dynamic interplay between peptide synthesis and membrane assembly would have been crucial for the emergence of protocells on the prebiotic Earth. However, the effect of membrane-forming amphiphiles on peptide synthesis, under prebiotically plausible conditions, remains relatively unexplored. Here we discern the effect of a phospholipid on peptide synthesis using a non-activated amino acid, under wet–dry cycles. We report two competing processes simultaneously forming peptides and N-acyl amino acids (NAAs) in a single-pot reaction from a common set of reactants. NAA synthesis occurs via an ester–amide exchange, which is the first demonstration of this phenomenon in a lipid–amino acid system. Furthermore, NAAs self-assemble into vesicles at acidic pH, signifying their ability to form protocellular membranes under acidic geothermal conditions. Our work highlights the importance of exploring the co-evolutionary interactions between membrane assembly and peptide synthesis, having implications for the emergence of hitherto uncharacterized compounds of unknown prebiotic relevance.

Graphical abstract: Spontaneous emergence of membrane-forming protoamphiphiles from a lipid–amino acid mixture under wet–dry cycles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
13 Oct 2020
Accepted
05 Jan 2021
First published
05 Jan 2021
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2021,12, 2970-2978

Spontaneous emergence of membrane-forming protoamphiphiles from a lipid–amino acid mixture under wet–dry cycles

M. P. Joshi, A. A. Sawant and S. Rajamani, Chem. Sci., 2021, 12, 2970 DOI: 10.1039/D0SC05650B

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