Abstract EANA2025-159

Compartmentalization is essential for the origin of life to provide a locale where prebiotic reactants are available in sufficient abundance and proximity to one another that prebiotic reactions can occur on a reasonable timescale; this is how the “dilution problem” of the origin of life can be overcome. One strategy for compartmentalization involves lipid membranes, akin to the cell membranes of modern biology. It was proposed that membranous vesicles could form given a layer of fatty acids on the early Earth liquid surfaces. Our group and others show that this is possible when lipid-coated aerosols are generated from the lipid-coated solution and cross back through the interface, picking up a second layer of lipids. We also find that cargo can be encapsulated, transported, and up-concentrated within the aerosol vesicles. Up-concentration via aerosol drying provides a mechanism by which the interior and exterior of the compartment can become differentiated. This offers the possibility of various individual protocells making up a population within a distinct environment.