PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Elif S. Köksal
AU  - Susanne Liese
AU  - Lin Xue
AU  - Ruslan Ryskulov
AU  - Lauri Viitala
AU  - Andreas Carlson
AU  - Irep Gözen
TI  - Rapid growth and fusion of protocells in surface-adhered membrane networks
AID  - 10.1101/2020.03.10.980417
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.03.10.980417
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/03/11/2020.03.10.980417.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/03/11/2020.03.10.980417.full
AB  - Elevated temperatures might have promoted the nucleation, growth and replication of protocells on the early Earth. Recent reports have shown evidence that moderately high temperatures not only permit protocell assembly at the origin of life, but could have actively supported it. Here we show the fast nucleation and growth of vesicular compartments from autonomously formed lipid networks on solid surfaces, induced by a moderate increase in temperature. Branches of the networks, initially consisting of self-assembled interconnected nanotubes, rapidly swell into microcompartments which can spontaneously encapsulate RNA fragments. The increase in temperature further causes fusion of adjacent network-connected compartments, resulting in the redistribution of the RNA. The experimental observations and the mathematical model indicate that the presence of nanotubular interconnections between protocells facilitates the fusion process.