Synthetic Organelle Cover Art (IMAGE)
Caption
An illustration of part of a synthetic organelle without a membrane. Here we see two layers that phase separate like oil and water, but both layers are water. There is no oil. Each layer contains a different solute that gives it its own chemical thermodynamics, keeping it separate from the other one. Chemical reactions cascade from one layer to the next in a chain reaction. The molecules illustrated on the outside are sugars called dextran, a solute. The gray middle layer contains an enzyme, depicted as small yellow spheres that would carry out a step in the reaction cascade.
Credit
Georgia Tech
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None
License
Licensed content