Sculpting DNA-based synthetic cells through phase separation and phase-targeted activity

Abstract

Synthetic cells, like their biological counterparts, require internal compartments with distinct chemical and physical properties where different functionalities can be localised. Inspired by membrane-less compartmentalisation in biological cells, here we demonstrate how micro-phase separation can be used to engineer heterogeneous cell-like architectures with programmable morphology and compartment-targeted activity. The synthetic cells selfassemble from amphiphilic DNA nanostructures, producing core-shell condensates due to size-induced de-mixing. Lipid deposition and phase-selective etching are then used to generate a porous pseudo-membrane, a cytoplasm analogue, and membrane-less organelles. The synthetic cells can sustain RNA synthesis via in vitro transcription, leading to cytoplasm and pseudo-membrane expansion caused by an accumulation of the transcript. Our approach exemplifies how architectural and functional complexity can emerge from a limited number of distinct building blocks, if molecular-scale programmability, emergent biophysical phenomena, and biochemical activity are coupled to mimic those observed in live cells.