Enzymatic Reactions in Giant Vesicles

Walde, P. (2000). Enzymatic reactions in giant vesicles. In Giant Vesicles, Perspectives in Supramolecular Chemistry, eds. P. L. Luisi and P. Walde. John Wiley Sons Ltd., pp. 297-311. 

Walde, Peter, see Fischer, Aline, 6, 37 see also Goto, Ayako, 6, 261 Enzymatic Reactions in Giant Vesicles, 6, 297. 

ENZYMATIC REACTIONS IN GIANT VESICLES 13.3.1 Formation of GVs and Operational Methodology... 

A second reason for the interest in giant vesicles is that by special micromanipulation (similar to that used in cell biology) it is possible directly and quantitatively to inject chemicals inside the compartment. An example of the effect of an enzymatic reaction inside giant vesicles is given in the Figure 10.8. 

Nucleic Acid-Dependent Enzymatic Reactions in Conventional Liposomes and Giant Vesicles Thomas Oberholzer... 

A totally different approach is described in this section here enzymatic reactions are performed in giant vesicles (GVs) with diameters of 30 to 100 pm. The GVs are formed by a method described by Angelova and Dimitrov,called the electroformation method. This method is singular in the sense that the formed GVs remain in contact with the platinum electrode (the site where they are formed), a fact that is crucial for further experimentation. Of course, these GVs cannot be considered... 

For carrying out enzymatic reactions in a single giant vesicle it is important that (a) the injected volume of a single injection is not too small as highly concentrated... 

This chapter focuses on studies that describe enzymatic reactions occurring in the aqueous pools of conventional liposomes or giant vesicles among all the reactions that have been performed within such aggregates, this chapter summarizes enzymatic reactions that are nucleic acid dependent (various polymerase reactions and protein synthesis) and are, therefore, also relevant to the origin of life. 

Abstract. Giant lipid vesicles have been extensively used in recent years as in vitro artificial models for protocells, i.e. primitive cell models or synthetic celllike systems of minimal complexity. Due to their dimensions in the micrometer range, giant vesicles can be designed as micro-sized enzymatic chemical reactors fed by a flux of substrates from the outside and monitored by confocal light microscopy in order to follow the production of fluorescence compounds. In this paper we present a 3D modelling approach to the simulation of giant vesicle where enzymatic reactions take place, and we apply this approach to a case study of a three-enzymes metabolic pathway. 

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