Search results for " giant vesicles"

TRANSPORTAN 10 INTERACTION WITH GIANT VESICLES: INSERTION EFFECTS AND PORE FORMATION

Transportan 10 (TP10) is a 21 residues peptide that belongs to the family of the antimicrobial and cytolytic or cytotoxic amphipathic peptides. It contains a high proportion of positively charged amino acids (four lysines), no negative charges and the N-terminus that impart it a formal +5 charge at neutral pH.1 This large number of positive charges is an essential feature for the electrostatic interaction of TP10 with microbial and tumoral membranes, which are characherized by a net negative charge and also by a higher fluidity if compared with mammalin ones.2 Here, combining spectroscopic and fluorescence lifetime imaging techniques, we analyse the fate of the multifunctional3-4 TP10 and i…

Natural or synthetic nucleic acids encapsulated in a closed cavity of amphiphiles

2013

In this review some aspects of the interactions of organized structures of amphiphiles with natural or synthetic DNAs are briefly considered. In particular DNAs encapsulated in closed cavities of amphiphiles, specifically giant vesicles and water-in-oil droplets and reverse micelles, are dealt with. Two main applications of giant vesicles are reviewed in detail, namely their use as microreactors where reactions can be followed by optical microscopy on a single vesicle and in synthetic biology as protocell models or as potential semi-synthetic ‘‘living’’ cells. Water-in-oil droplets uses for rapid and relatively low-cost DNA amplification by PCR reaction are described as well as for in vitro…