Light-Powered Reactivation of Flagella and Contraction of Microtubule Networks: Toward Building an Artificial Cell

Artificial systems
capable of self-sustained movement with self-sufficient
energy are of high interest with respect to the development of many
challenging applications, including medical treatments, but also technical
applications. The bottom-up assembly of such systems in the context
of synthetic biology is still a challenging task. In this work, we
demonstrate the biocompatibility and efficiency of an artificial light-driven
energy module and a motility functional unit by integrating light-switchable
photosynthetic vesicles with demembranated flagella. The flagellar
propulsion is coupled to the beating frequency, and dynamic ATP synthesis
in response to illumination allows us to control beating frequency
of flagella in a light-dependent manner. In addition, we verified
the functionality of light-powered synthetic vesicles in in
vitro motility assays by encapsulating microtubules assembled
with force-generating kinesin-1 motors and the energy module to investigate
the dynamics of a contractile filamentous network in cell-like compartments
by optical stimulation. Integration of this photosynthetic system
with various biological building blocks such as cytoskeletal filaments
and molecular motors may contribute to the bottom-up synthesis of
artificial cells that are able to undergo motor-driven morphological
deformations and exhibit directional motion in a light-controllable
fashion.