Generation of membrane bound vesicles is of immense importance in the context of drug delivery, bioreactor design, bottom-up synthetic biology and origin of life studies. Arguably, the earliest forms of life flourished in membrane bound vesicles, as they acted as a protective compartment against external factors. In this work we have shown that, a simple, facile and chemoselective reaction between fatty acyl adenylates and an amine-functionalized lysolipid can be used to drive the synthesis of phospholipids, which self-assemble to form micron-sized vesicles. Fatty acyl adenylates were generated by a mycobacterial enzyme FadD10, thereby opening up the possibility of linking gene expression with phospholipid synthesis. We have also shown for that, lipid synthesis can be carried out in very high yield following the expression of FadD10 in a recombinant translation/transcription expression system (PURExpress<sup>®</sup>). This could be a significant step towards construction of a minimal artificial cell and also can provide insight towards mechanisms leading to origin of life.

Linking gene expression with phospholipid membrane formation

254th National Meeting (2017)

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