Membraneless coacervate microdroplet Archives

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, People Of Astrobiology, Status Report

Liquid–liquid Phase Separation As A Driver Of Abiogenesis And Evolution

by Keith CowingMay 22, 2026May 22, 2026

The origin of life may have emerged through physical mechanisms that enable molecular organization and self-assembly. Building on Alexander Oparin’s concept of coacervate droplets, liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) offers a […]

Droplet bioreactors demonstrating chemical communication. (A) Schematic of enzyme cascade in droplets and the corresponding droplet-to-droplet chemical communication. (B) Confocal micrographs showing the time evolution of resorufin fluorescence (red channel) in PDDA-ATP coacervate droplets with CF488-GOx (green channel) and CF640-HRP (blue channel) enzymes as cargo. Glucose and amplex red were introduced into the solution surrounding the droplets, and the resultant resorufin fluorescence first appeared in HRP droplets (merged channel color change from blue to purple to pink) and then in GOx (color change from green to yellow) droplets. Scale bars, 30 μm. A set of images from another independent trial of the same experiment are shown in fig. S7, where similar features were found. (C) A plot of time evolution of resorufin fluorescence intensity in stabilized droplets during enzyme catalysis. For each time point, normalized intensity corresponds to area fraction of HRP (or Gox) protocell covered by resorufin fluorescence, n = 4 images were analyzed, and error bars represent SDs. Science via PubMed

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

Did The Exposure Of Coacervate Droplets To Rain Make Them The First Stable Protocells?

by Keith CowingOctober 30, 2024October 30, 2024

Membraneless coacervate microdroplets have long been proposed as model protocells as they can grow, divide, and concentrate RNA by natural partitioning.