Growth of Giant Peptide Vesicles Driven by Compartmentalized Transcription–Translation Activity

Compartmentalization and spatial organization of biochemical reactions are essential for the establishment of complex metabolic pathways inside synthetic cells. Phospholipid and fatty acid membranes are the most natural candidates for this purpose, but also polymers have shown great potential as enclosures of artificial cell mimics. Herein, we report on the formation of giant vesicles in a size range of 1 μm–100 μm using amphiphilic elastin‐like polypeptides. The peptide vesicles can accommodate cell‐free gene expression reactions, which is demonstrated by the transcription of a fluorescent RNA aptamer and the production of a fluorescent protein. Importantly, gene expression inside the vesicles leads to a strong growth of their size—up to an order of magnitude in volume in several cases—which is driven by changes in osmotic pressure, resulting in fusion events and uptake of membrane peptides from the environment. Encapsulation of RNA transcription or cell‐free protein expression reactions inside vesicles made from elastin‐like polypeptide membranes promotes strong growth of the vesicles, which is driven by the generated osmotic pressure accompanied by multiple fusion events. Compared to other membranous compartments, the vesicles display extraordinary stability, which allows growth over several orders of magnitude in volume.