Berlin 2008 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 7: Posters I

BP 7.53: Poster

Montag, 25. Februar 2008, 17:00–19:30, Poster A

Artificial Organelles from Giant Unilamellar Vesicles — •Jakob Schweizer and Petra Schwille — Biotec/TU Dresden, Tatzberg 47, 01307 Dresden, Germany

Giant Unilamellar Vesicles (GUV) constituted from lipid bilayers serve as a model system for the minimal cell. However, they are also an ideal tool to synthesize sub-cellular structures in order to mimic intracellular processes. Here we present a way to construct a rudimentary artificial chloroplast from purely biological raw materials using merely three main components: lipids, bacteriorhodopsin and F0F1-ATP synthase. Powered by photon absorption bacteriorhodopsin pumps protons into the vesicle, whereas the F0F1-ATP synthase utilizes the emerging proton gradient to produce ATP. The most crucial step is therefore the reconstitution of the functional proteins into the GUVs in the correct orientation. Establishing an artificial chloroplast can provide further insight into the evolution of biological chloroplasts. Moreover, these photo-sensitive systems will also serve as miniature power plants, providing the ATP essential for more complicated cellular model systems. Besides protein reconstitution and proteo-GUV formation we want to present methods to proof the protein activity of BR and the ATP-synthase in GUVs.