Membraneless polyester microdroplets as primordial compartments at the origins of life

The prebiotic milieu was likely heterogeneous, consisting of a large number of chemicals and their associated reactions, including those not only of biological compounds, but also nonbiological compounds. Although origins of life research has focused primarily on biological molecules, the nonbiological molecules which were also present may have assisted evolving chemical systems in unforeseen ways. Thus, we synthesized and assembled membraneless polyester microdroplets from drying of pools of simple α-hydroxy acid monomers and showed that they can act as plausible prebiotic compartments. By having the capacity to undergo combinatorial rearrangement, these microdroplets could have developed versatile abilities to host early genetic and metabolic systems critical for the origins of life.