Light energy transduction in liposome-based artificial cells

Paola Albanese; Fabio Mavelli; Emiliano Altamura

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2023.1161730

Light energy transduction in liposome-based artificial cells

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Mar 29:11:1161730. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1161730. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Paola Albanese^{1

2}, Fabio Mavelli³, Emiliano Altamura³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Earth, Environmental and Physical Sciences, University of Siena, Siena, Italy.
² Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Siena, Siena, Italy.
³ Department of Chemistry, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.

Abstract

In this work we review the latest strategies for the bottom-up assembly of energetically autonomous artificial cells capable of transducing light energy into chemical energy and support internalized metabolic pathways. Such entities are built by taking inspiration from the photosynthetic machineries found in nature which are purified and reconstituted directly in the membrane of artificial compartments or encapsulated in form of organelle-like structures. Specifically, we report and discuss recent examples based on liposome-technology and multi-compartment (nested) architectures pointing out the importance of this matter for the artificial cell synthesis research field and some limitations and perspectives of the bottom-up approach.

Keywords: artificial cell; artificial photosyhthesis; giant vesicle (GV); light transduction; liposomes; membrane proteins; multi-compartment system; photosynthetic proteins.

Publication types

Review