self-assembly 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 […]

Biological and abiotic tubes. SEM images of tubular colonies of a) Aspergillus niger feeding on straw (image: Anna Neubeck) and b) manganese oxide chemical gardens (image: Huld et al., 2023). The A. niger tubes ranged in size between 2-5 µm in diameter, and the manganese oxides were found in ranges between 1–20 µm in size. SEM images of c) A. niger (image: Anna Neubeck), d) manganese oxide chemical gardens (image: Anna Neubeck), and e) A. niger closeup (image: D. Gregory & D. Marshall, CC BY 4.0). -- nlin.PS

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Meteorites & Asteroids, Microbiology & Virology, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Status Report

Self-assembled Versus Biological Pattern Formation In Geology

by Keith CowingJanuary 9, 2026January 9, 2026

Both abiotic self-organization and biological mechanisms have been put forward as the origin of a number of geological patterns.

From the prebiotic soup to the creation of biodiversity.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

The Origin Of Life And Cellular Systems: A Continuum From Prebiotic Chemistry To Biodiversity

by Keith CowingDecember 8, 2025December 8, 2025

The origin of life remains one of the most profound and enduring enigmas in the biological sciences. Despite substantial advances in prebiotic chemistry, fundamental uncertainties persist regarding the precise mechanisms […]

The autocatalytic reaction network. Top: the full network of reactions that were characterized in the autocatalytic P1 Flexizyme assembly network. The assembled, chimeric P1 5 ribozyme is represented in cyan. The arrow thickness corresponds roughly to the relative reaction rates. -- biorxiv.org

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Status Report

Autocatalytic Assembly Of A Chimeric Aminoacyl-RNA Synthetase Ribozyme

by Keith CowingNovember 8, 2024September 18, 2025

Autocatalytic reactions driving the self-assembly of biological polymers are important for the origin of life, yet few experimental examples of such reactions exist.

SEM image of the mesophase constructed with edge–edge connected checkerboard lattice obtained with Ag NCs post-synthetically modified with a feedstock mixture of 50 µM PEG20k-SH and 6 µM C16-SH. Scale bar = 500 nm, inset = 100 nm. -- Nature Communications

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

Nanosized Blocks Spontaneously Assemble In Water To Create Tiny Floating Checkerboards

by Keith CowingJune 13, 2024June 13, 2024

Researchers have engineered nanosized cubes that spontaneously form a two-dimensional checkerboard pattern when dropped on the surface of water. The work, published in Nature Communications, presents a simple approach to […]

Spontaneous pattern formation in a three-phase system (PEG+DEX+gelatin) within a PEG-coated glass capillary. The compositions of the PEG/DEX/gelatin are (i) 4.2 wt %/3.3 wt %/5.0 wt %; (ii) 3.9 wt %/3.1 wt %/4.7 wt %; (iii) 3.6 wt %/2.9 wt %/4.3 wt %. The red, green, and black (no fluorescence) regions correspond to the DEX- (labeled with TRITC-dextran), gelatin- (labeled with FITC-I) and PEG-rich phases, respectively. White dashed lines indicate the position of the inner glass wall. (a) Snapshots of the solution inside the capillary (inner diameter: 140 μm, 280 μm) at the different times. (b) Spatiotemporal plot of (a). (c) Macroscopic phase separation of the PEG/DEX/gelatin solution in bulk. The composition of the PEG/DEX/gelatin is 4.2 wt %/3.3 wt %/5.0 wt %. Upper: Before centrifugation (at 60 °C in the incubator and for 20 min after mixing the solution); Lower: After centrifugation for 1 min (3000 rpm). The top, middle, and bottom phases correspond to the PEG-, gelatin-, and DEX-rich phases, respectively. The right panels show the fluorescence microscopy of the top (PEG-rich) phase on the glass slide. -- ACS/Doshisha University

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

Self-emergence Of Stational Periodic Arrangement Of Dual Microdroplets Through Quasi One-dimensional Confinement

by Keith CowingMarch 20, 2024

Polymer systems composed of multiple components can spontaneously induce emulsion or microdroplets by mechanical mixing, as an intermediate state of macroscopic phase separation.

Modeling the first steps of evolution in a randomly assembled community that competes for substitutable resources. (A) Microbial strains compete for R resources that are continuously supplied by the environment at rates κi . Each strain µ has a characteristic set of uptake rates rµ,i (arrows), which can be altered by further mutations. (B) A local pool of S initial species, whose phenotypes are randomly drawn from a common statistical distribution, self-assembles into an ecological equilibrium with S ∗ ≤ S surviving species (left). A new mutation (M) arises in one of the surviving species (P); if the mutation provides a fitness benefit, its descendants can either replace the parent strain (top right) or stably coexist with the parent, potentially driving another species to extinction (bottom right). -- biorxiv.org

Biophysics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

Predicting The First Steps Of Evolution In Randomly Assembled Communities

by Keith CowingFebruary 12, 2024February 11, 2024

Microbial communities can self-assemble into highly diverse states with predictable statistical properties. However, these initial states can be disrupted by rapid evolution of the resident strains. When a new mutation […]

Random interactions reproduce the aggregate diversity observed in simple interaction maps. For each value of affinity and asymmetry, we show a randomly drawn interaction map (bottom left matrix, with the color scale of Fig. 3), a snapshot of the result of the simulated annealing, and the aggregate category, as in Fig. 2. Here and in the following, the lattice has 30 × 30 sites, and there are 100 particles. -- physics.bio-ph

Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report

How Do Particles With Complex Interactions Self-assemble?

by Keith CowingDecember 28, 2023

In living cells, proteins self-assemble into large functional structures based on specific interactions between molecularly complex patches.

self-assembly

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

Self-assembled Versus Biological Pattern Formation In Geology

The Origin Of Life And Cellular Systems: A Continuum From Prebiotic Chemistry To Biodiversity

Autocatalytic Assembly Of A Chimeric Aminoacyl-RNA Synthetase Ribozyme

Nanosized Blocks Spontaneously Assemble In Water To Create Tiny Floating Checkerboards

Self-emergence Of Stational Periodic Arrangement Of Dual Microdroplets Through Quasi One-dimensional Confinement

Predicting The First Steps Of Evolution In Randomly Assembled Communities

How Do Particles With Complex Interactions Self-assemble?

Why Europa’s Hidden Ocean May Be More Difficult To Reach Than Scientists Thought

Pinpointing Where Cells First Begin Copying DNA

Experimental Measurements of Benzene Ice Critical Saturation Ratios on Titan Tholins and Impact on the Microphysical Modeling of Titan’s South Polar Benzene Cloud

From Mars to Minas: Research Reclassifies Organisms That Thrive In Highly Saline Environments

Could Alien Signals Be Hiding On A Different Radio Channel?