Bilayer vesicles have great potential to encapsulate and control biological reactions in complex environments. As synthetic vesicles continue to be designed with increasingly complex activities, such as housing protein expression systems, an important question has arisen about how to control the progress of such reactions. Lipid vesicle fusion driven through membrane-bound DNA tethers is a promising route to control fusion and content mixing between specific vesicles. Here, we demonstrate how DNA-mediated vesicle fusion efficiency may be increased by introducing liquid-ordered and disordered lipid phases into vesicle membranes. We further demonstrate that hydrophobic mismatch between lipid phases enhances vesicle fusion kinetics. Lastly, we show that vesicle fusion between DNA-tethered vesicles can be used to deliver and mix cargo required for <i>in vitro </i>protein expression by synthesizing a model soluble and membrane protein. This study illustrates how membrane biophysics can be used to enhance DNA-mediated fusion events and advances our capabilities in controlling localized reactions, an important step in developing more complex vesicle-based systems.<br/> <br/>

Initiation of biological reactions via DNA-mediated vesicle fusion

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.