ArticleNature communications2025
Self-growing protocell models in aqueous two-phase system induced by internal DNA replication reaction.
Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Supramolecular nanofiber stabilization of microdroplets enables ultra-sensitive virus infection analysis.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Review
- Dynamics of synthetic transcriptional condensates emerge from RNA synthesis and degradation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Spontaneous Fusion of Aqueous Two-Phase Droplets: Effect of Coexisting Phospholipids on Stability.Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology · 2025Article
- Orchestrating Self-Replication in Artificial Cells with Digital Microfluidics.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2025Article
- The Japan-UK Synthetic Biology Conference, Spring 2025: Strengthening Global Links to Engineer Biology.ACS synthetic biology · 2025Article
- Membraneless protocell confined by a heat flow.Nature physics · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The bottom-up reconstitution of self-growing artificial cells is a critical milestone toward realizing autonomy and evolvability. However, building artificial cells that exhibit self-growth coupled with internal replication of gene-encoding DNA has not been achieved yet. Here, we report self-growing artificial cell models based on dextran-rich droplets in an aqueous two-phase system of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and dextran (DEX). Motivated by the finding that DNA induces the generation of DEX-rich droplets, we integrate DNA amplification system with DEX-rich droplets, which exhibited active self-growth. We implement the protocells with cell-free transcription-translation systems coupled with DNA amplification/replication, which also show active self-growth. Considering the simplicities in terms of the chemical composition and the mechanism, these results underscore the potential of DEX droplets as a foundational platform for engineering protocells, giving implications for the emergence of protocells under prebiotic conditions.
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Registered trials
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