Cover Picture: Protein Synthesis in Sub‐Micrometer Water‐in‐Oil Droplets (ChemBioChem 14/2015)

E-ISSN： 1439-7633|1439-4227|14|1965-1965

ISSN： 1439-4227

Source： CHEMBIOCHEM, Vol.1439-4227, Iss.14, 2015-09, pp. : 1965-1965

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Abstract

The cover picture shows a confocal fluorescence picture of water‐in‐oil microemulsion droplets synthesizing enhanced green fluorescent protein by cell‐free E. coli extracts—an in vitro compartmentation (IVC) system. As shown by the dynamic light‐scattering profile, most of the droplets have radius of around 300–500 nm. The droplet interface is composed of soybean lecithin (one of the most representative phosphatidylcholines, the 16:0/18:2, is shown), cholesterol, and hexan‐1‐ol. The study reports how protein synthesis is indeed possible in such small compartments (volume of ca. 0.4 fL), thereby extending the scope of cell‐free protein synthesis in the sub‐micrometer range. The nature of the droplet interface, in particular the cholesterol versus hexan‐1‐ol ratio, strongly affects the experimental outcome because they tune the droplet–droplet interactions, such as solute exchange, in opposite ways (e.g., by fusion/fission mechanism). More details can be found in the Full Paper by P. L. Luisi et al. on page 2073 in Issue 14, 2015. (DOI: 10.1002/cbic.201500274).