Publication Date:
2010-03-06
Description:
The extensible byssal threads of marine mussels are shielded from abrasion in wave-swept habitats by an outer cuticle that is largely proteinaceous and approximately fivefold harder than the thread core. Threads from several species exhibit granular cuticles containing a protein that is rich in the catecholic amino acid 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (dopa) as well as inorganic ions, notably Fe3+. Granular cuticles exhibit a remarkable combination of high hardness and high extensibility. We explored byssus cuticle chemistry by means of in situ resonance Raman spectroscopy and demonstrated that the cuticle is a polymeric scaffold stabilized by catecholato-iron chelate complexes having an unusual clustered distribution. Consistent with byssal cuticle chemistry and mechanics, we present a model in which dense cross-linking in the granules provides hardness, whereas the less cross-linked matrix provides extensibility.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3087814/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉 〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3087814/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Harrington, Matthew J -- Masic, Admir -- Holten-Andersen, Niels -- Waite, J Herbert -- Fratzl, Peter -- R01 DE015415/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/ -- R01 DE015415-04/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/ -- R01 DE018468/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/ -- R01 DE018468-01A1/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/ -- R01 DE018468-02/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/ -- R01 DE018468-03/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/ -- R01 DE018468-04/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/ -- R01DE018468/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2010 Apr 9;328(5975):216-20. doi: 10.1126/science.1181044. Epub 2010 Mar 4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam 14424, Germany. Matt.Harrington@mpikg.mpg.de〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20203014" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animal Structures/chemistry
;
Animals
;
Biomechanical Phenomena
;
Dihydroxyphenylalanine/*chemistry
;
Ferric Compounds/*chemistry
;
Hardness
;
Iron/chemistry
;
Models, Biological
;
Mytilus/*chemistry/physiology
;
Physicochemical Processes
;
Proteins/*chemistry/metabolism
;
Repetitive Sequences, Amino Acid
;
Spectrum Analysis, Raman
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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