Elucidating the natural fabrication process of a high performance biopolymeric fiber
Polymer Materials
Final Report Abstract
Understanding the rapid assembly of the complex micro- and nanostructures of the byssus may provide a key towards the development of sustainable production routes for next generation high-performance polymers and tissue scaffolds. In the initial proposal, we aimed to elucidate the active (biologically regulated) and passive (physically driven) mechanisms underlying the self-assembly of the byssus. Using a combination of cuttingedge electron microscopy techniques and 3D reconstructions combined with elemental and biochemical analyses, we gained crucial new insights in the rapid assembly of the different functional parts of a complex high-performance biofiber. As originally proposed, we combined static with dynamic approaches and investigated the natural material. Our published findings show that the secret of the cuticle´s and core´s rapid self-assembly, is to a large extent a physically driven preorganization of building blocks based on their intrinsic block-copolymer nature. Physicochemical parameters, such as changes in pH and ionic strength, as well as the addition of metal ions, which facilitate the cross-linking and therefore the curing of the material, were identified as another important factor. The ability to isolate secretory vesicles and to study the assembly processes in vitro opens exiting new routes for the in-depth investigation of self-assembly processes. This study provided important new insights into the self-assembly process of the byssus including the prominent role of preorganized protein building blocks and into the role of metal ions. These insights have high relevance for the sustainable fabrication of polymeric materials and have provided further impetus for the current work in our group.
Publications
- (2020) Collagen Pentablock Copolymers form smectic Liquid Crystals as Precursors for Mussel Byssus Fabrication
Jehle, F., Priemel, T., Strauss, M., Fratzl, P., Bertinetti, L., Harrington, M. J.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.0c10457) - (2020) Hierarchically-structured metalloprotein composite coatings biofabricated from co-existing condensed liquid phases. Nature communications 11, 862
Jehle, F., Macias-Sanchez, E., Sviben, S., Fratzl, P., Bertinetti, L., Harrington, M. J.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14709-y)
