ArticleScience (New York, N.Y.)2003
Experimental models of primitive cellular compartments: encapsulation, growth, and division.
Article in Science (New York, N.Y.), 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 256 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
256 citing papers in PubMed, 851 citations in OpenAlex.
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- The role of minerals in prebiotic evolution: Implications for identifying worlds with the potential for life's origin.Fundamental research · 2026Review
- Proto-Biosignatures and Planetary Geochemical Metabolism: A Thermodynamic Screening Model of Prebiotic Geochemical Organization.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Protocell formation on micrometeorites.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Bottom-Up Coacervate-Based Artificial Cells: Integrating Cellular Hallmarks into Complex Life-Like Systems.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Review
- Conserved rod-to-spherical shape transitions in Escherichia coli through primordial experimental adaptations.Bioscience reports · 2026Article
- Can nanozymes achieve more than enzymes?Nature reviews. Materials · 2026Article
- Growth of fatty acid vesicles coupled with amino acid sequences of peptides toward evolvable protocells.Communications chemistry · 2026Article
- Influence of Phosphate Activation Chemistry on the Selection of the Primordial Genetic Alphabet.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2026Article
- Proteinoid Computing on Olivine Substrates.Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids · 2026Article
- Experimental and Numerical Modeling of Liposome Congregation in Meteorite Craters of Early Earth.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Analysis of Inner Content and Phospholipid Membrane Fusion during Two Step Freezing Induced Liposome Fusion.ACS omega · 2026Article
- Emergent Chemical Reactivity and Complexity of RNA Condensates.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2025Article
- Dynamical interactions among protocell populations: Implications for membrane-mediated chemical evolution.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Reconstituting alternative life using the test-bed of cell-free systems.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- The Hidden Cost of Fusion: Intrinsic Asymmetry in Vesicle Fusion Restricts Synthetic Cell Growth.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Polymerization and replication of primordial RNA induced by clay-water interface dynamics.Communications chemistry · 2025Article
- From experimental clues to theoretical modeling: Evolution associated with the membrane-takeover at an early stage of life.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Article
196 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The clay montmorillonite is known to catalyze the polymerization of RNA from activated ribonucleotides. Here we report that montmorillonite accelerates the spontaneous conversion of fatty acid micelles into vesicles. Clay particles often become encapsulated in these vesicles, thus providing a pathway for the prebiotic encapsulation of catalytically active surfaces within membrane vesicles. In addition, RNA adsorbed to clay can be encapsulated within vesicles. Once formed, such vesicles can grow by incorporating fatty acid supplied as micelles and can divide without dilution of their contents by extrusion through small pores. These processes mediate vesicle replication through cycles of growth and division. The formation, growth, and division of the earliest cells may have occurred in response to similar interactions with mineral particles and inputs of material and energy.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.