Credits: Nicola De Franceschi
Credits: Nicola De Franceschi
Cell division is one of the defining features of life.
When a bacterium divides, it grows by elongation while duplicating and segregating the genome.
Constriction of the cell results in the so-called "dumbbell" shape. Finally, the membrane scission machinery assembles at the narrow neck still connecting the two daughter cells.
In this movie, individual lambda DNA molecules were spontaneously segregated in the two daughter synthetic cells still connected by a membrane bridge.
Scientists around the world are trying to build cell division from the bottom-up, with the goal of creating a fully autonomous, self-dividing synthetic cell.
By using the SMS technology, we reconstituted a minimal scission machinery composed of only one protein: the bacterial GTPase Dynamin A.
Dynamin A spontaneously assembles at the neck of constricted synthetic cells and induces both membrane hemi-scission and full scission.
De Franceschi et al., Nature Nanotechnology 2023