Semipermeable membranes are a key feature of all living organisms. While specialized membrane transporters in cells can import otherwise impermeable nutrients, the earliest cells would have lacked a mechanism to import nutrients rapidly under nutrient-rich circumstances. Using both experiments and simulations, we find that a process akin to passive endocytosis can be recreated in model primitive cells. Molecules that are too impermeable to be absorbed can be taken up in a matter of seconds in an endocytic vesicle. The internalized cargo can then be slowly released over hours, into the main lumen or putative cytoplasm. This work demonstrates a way by which primitive life could have broken the symmetry of passive permeation prior to the evolution of protein transporters.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 14. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 02 February 2024.
All research outputs
#3,357,419
of 34,387,656 outputs
Outputs from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#35,887
of 118,953 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#50,691
of 417,607 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#424
of 808 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,387,656 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 118,953 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 40.1. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 69% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 417,607 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 808 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 47th percentile – i.e., 47% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
