Regensburg 2022 – scientific programme
Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help
BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 26: Focus Session: Bioinspired Systems
BP 26.4: Talk
Thursday, September 8, 2022, 16:15–16:30, H15
Bottom-up assembly of synthetic cells with bio-inspired DNA-based cytoskeletons — •Kevin Jahnke1, Pengfei Zhan2, Maja Illig1, Na Liu2, and Kerstin Göpfrich1 — 1Max Planck Institute for Medical Research — 2Stuttgart University
The bottom-up assembly of synthetic cells with a functional cytoskeleton sets a major milestone to understand cell mechanics and to develop man-made cellular machines. However, the combination of multiple elements and functions remained elusive, which stimulates endeavors to explore entirely synthetic bio-inspired and rationally designed solutions towards engineering life. To this end, DNA nanotechnology represents one of the most promising routes. Here, we demonstrate functional DNA-based cytoskeletons operating in microfluidic cell-sized compartments and lipid vesicles. The synthetic cytoskeletons consist of DNA tiles self-assembled into filament networks (Zhan*, Jahnke* et al., in press at Nat. Chem. 2022; Jahnke et al., ACS Nano 2022). These synthetic cytoskeletons can be rationally designed and controlled to imitate features of natural cytoskeletons, including ATP-triggered polymerization, morphology control and vesicle transport in cell-sized confinement. Also, they possess engineerable characteristics, including assembly and disassembly powered by DNA hybridization, light or aptamer-target interactions. Moreover, we incorporate membrane-spanning DNA origami signalling units to allow for mechanochemical signal transduction across the GUV membrane (Jahnke, Illig et al., biorxiv 2022). This work underpins DNA nanotechnology as a key player in building synthetic cells from the bottom up.