The evolutionary significance of phase-separated microsystems

Abstract

The source, preparation, and properties of phase-separated systems such as lipid layers, coacervate droplets, sulphobes, and proteinoid microspheres are reviewed. These microsystems are of interest as partial models for the cell and as partial or total models for the protocell. Conceptual benefits from the study of such models include clues to experiments on origins, insights into principles of action, and, in some instances, presumable models of the origin of the protocell. The benefits to evolution of organized chemical units are many, and can in part be analyzed. Ease of formation suggests that such units would have arisen early in primordial organic evolution. Integration of these various concepts and the results of consequent experiments have contributed to the developing theory of the origins of primordial and contemporary life.