Figure 1.

Simplified overview of the designs of lipid encapsulated protocells. (a) A fully replicating and autonomous protocell where all components for metabolism, product synthesis, maintenance and replication are provided or are readily produced by in vitro protein synthesis; (b) a simplified protocell that cannot replicate, but is capable of producing an entire metabolic pathway including receptors for sensing and responding to environmental cues by protein production from transcription/translation of provided nucleic acid templates (in vitro transcription/translation—IVT); and (c) further simplification of the design results in elimination of the transcriptional machinery components with all components required for the protocell metabolism added during protocell production. All three designs may still retain equivalent metabolism, that is, they all may produce the same end products, but the simplified designs have a significantly reduced component count.