AI Article Synopsis

  • Living systems use fuel-driven supramolecular polymers, like actin, regulated by ATP to control cell functions through a cycle of assembly and disassembly.
  • Recent advancements in artificial polymers face challenges in maintaining non-equilibrium steady states (NESS).
  • A new supramolecular polymer developed in a membrane reactor allows for sustained NESS by continuously adding ATP and removing waste, highlighting potential applications for creating life-like behavior in other materials.

Article Abstract

Living systems use fuel-driven supramolecular polymers such as actin to control important cell functions. Fuel molecules like ATP are used to control when and where such polymers should assemble and disassemble. The cell supplies fresh ATP to the cytosol and removes waste products to sustain steady states. Artificial fuel-driven polymers have been developed recently, but keeping them in sustained non-equilibrium steady states (NESS) has proven challenging. Here we show a supramolecular polymer that can be kept in NESS, inside a membrane reactor where ATP is added and waste removed continuously. Assembly and disassembly of our polymer is regulated by phosphorylation and dephosphorylation, respectively. Waste products lead to inhibition, causing the reaction cycle to stop. Inside the membrane reactor, however, waste can be removed leading to long-lived NESS conditions. We anticipate that our approach to obtain NESS can be applied to other stimuli-responsive materials to achieve more life-like behaviour.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5481825PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15899DOI Listing

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