Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 49: Physics of the Genesis of Life - Focus Session organized by Moritz Kreysing and Dieter Braun
BP 49.2: Talk
Thursday, March 23, 2017, 10:00–10:15, SCH A251
Exploring the emergence of function in microfluidic droplets — •Rebecca Turk MacLeod1, Andrew Griffiths2, and Leroy Cronin1 — 1University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK — 2ESPCI, Paris, France
Metabolism-first theories on the origin of life suggest that there may have been prebiotic systems capable of propagation and Darwinian evolution that were not dependent on nucleotide-based replication. We are testing this idea by observing proposed prebiotic reactions compartmentalized in protocell analogues. Using microfluidics, we generate water-in-oil emulsions that contain prebiotic reactants and/or products, and subsequently observe the behavior of the droplets as a function of their chemistry. Compartmentalized carbohydrate products of the formose reaction affect the osmotic pressure of the droplets, thus driving the droplets to grow at the expense of formaldehyde-containing neighbors. Furthermore, a minority population of efficient formose reaction droplets (those with rates enhanced by reaction products) grow at the expense of less-efficient formose droplets.
This phenomenon of growth correlated with chemical complexity may present a means of selection for metabolizing protocells. Accordingly, we are utilizing the automated chemo-robotic tools developed by the Cronin lab to test the progress and evolution of other prebiotic chemistries compartmentalized in water-in-oil emulsions.