molecular biology - What are the "minimum requirements" for a single cell?

I saw a description of the "minimum requirements" for a cell at http://creation.com/origin-of-life in the section called "What are the minimum requirements for a cell to live?" and I'm wondering if this is scientifically accurate - and if not - what are the real requirements?

[note/warning - the link above is to a creationist site - I'm only quoting this source because I'm trying find the science involved and I didn't find other sources talking about all the necessary pieces. I'm not trying to promote creationism with this question so please don't attack the source or me for bringing it. If you can find a non-creationist source which outlines these requirements, I'll be happy to update the question and remove this source.)

In summary it lists the requirements as follows:

1. cell membrane


2. way of storing information (DNA)


3. way of reading 2. to make components needed
   
   
   
   • RNA polymerase
   
   
   • gyrases to untwist DNA
   
   
   • ribosomes to make proteins
   
   
   • (a few others I omitted b/c I don't know if they're really important)
   
   
   
   
   


4. means of creating fuel (ATP synthase)


5. a means of copying the information for reproduction

The context of the question is similar to Can scientists create totally synthetic life? and a question I wrote What is the most complex biological organism (or precursors) that we have been able to synthesize from raw materials?.

I'm trying to understand what would be involved in making a cell from scratch. Somehow I found this source but I don't know if it's accurate.

Answer

So, to make cells from scratch you would need: amphiphilic molecules to form a membrane, a decent mix of simple molecules (sugars, nucleic acids, peptides) that serve as reactant and building blocks for more complex things, some simple catalyzer (metals, minerals, pepetides, aptamers, etc..) to run the reactions, enough energy to maintain lots of reactions running and keep them far from the equilibrium. Of course, lots of time...

An even more minimalistic approach would use a single molecule to do the enzymatic job while storing evolvable informations. In this case RNA alone has been proposed as substitute for proteins and DNA in a very minimal cell. In theory also DNA alone could do the same. However the minimal tasks needed to be done: maintain the self (to be compartimentalized), to grow (to have a flux of molecule not in equilibrium), to divide, to maintain the information stably enough to be useful for the next generation and at the same time prone too mutability to evolve.

One more point. Life itself doesn't strictly require to be compartmentalized. You can think of a network of chemical reactions that have the ability to grow, to replicate its components etc but without a cell membrane. However I think that a cell-like form of life is somewhat more likely to happen.