Scientists construct energy production unit for a synthetic cell

Scientists at the University of Groningen have constructed synthetic vesicles in which ATP, the main energy carrier in living cells, is produced. The vesicles use the ATP to maintain their volume and their ionic strength homeostasis.

This metabolic network will eventually be used in the creation of synthetic cells – but it can already be used to study ATP-dependent processes.

"Our aim is the bottom-up construction of a synthetic cell that can sustain itself and that can grow and divide," explains University of Groningen Professor of Biochemistry Bert Poolman. He is part of a Dutch consortium that obtained a Gravitation grant in 2017 from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research to realize this ambition. Different groups of scientists are producing different modules for the cell and Poolman's group was tasked with energy production.

The current system is based on biochemical components. However, Poolman's colleagues at Wageningen University & Research are busy collecting the genes needed for the production of enzymes used by the system and incorporating them into an artificial chromosome. Others are working on lipid and protein synthesis, for example, or cell division.

The final synthetic cell should contain DNA for all these modules and operate them autonomously like a living cell, but in this case, engineered from the bottom-up and including new properties.