Abstract
The minerals involved in the formation of metazoan skeletons principally comprise glassy silica, calcium phosphate or carbonate. Because of their ancient heritage, glass sponges (Hexactinellida) may shed light on fundamental questions such as molecular evolution, the unique chemistry and formation of the first skeletal silica-based structures, and the origin of multicellular animals. We have studied anchoring spicules from the metre-long stalk of the glass rope sponge (Hyalonema sieboldi; Porifera, Class Hexactinellida), which are remarkable for their size, durability, flexibility and optical properties. Using slow-alkali etching of biosilica, we isolated the organic fraction, which was revealed to be dominated by a hydroxylated fibrillar collagen that contains an unusual [Gly–3Hyp–4Hyp] motif. We speculate that this motif is predisposed for silica precipitation, and provides a novel template for biosilicification in nature.
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Acknowledgements
This work was partially supported by NE/C511148/1 grant to M.J.C. and J.T.-O., by a joint grant from Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) (grant ref. 325; A/08/72558) and Russian Ministry of Education and Science (RMES) (AVCP grant no. 8066) to V.V.B., and by the Erasmus Mundus External Co-operation Programme of the European Union 2009 to D.K. The Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry (CoEMS) at York is supported by Science City York and Yorkshire Forward using funds from the Northern Way Initiative. The authors also thank H. Lichte for use of the facilities at the Special Electron Microscopy Laboratory for high-resolution and holography at Triebenberg, TU Dresden, Germany. The authors thank G. Bavestrello, K. Tabachnick, M. Hofreiter, H. Roempler and E. Bäeuerlein for their helpful discussions. Finally, the authors are very grateful to S. Paasch, H. Meissner, G. Richter, T. Hanke, O. Trommer, A. Mensch, S. Heinemann for excellent technical assistance. G.W. acknowledges funding from the German Science Foundation (DFG). Financial support by DFG (Graduiertenkolleg 378) to R.H. and T.L. and the European Fund for Regional Structure Development (EFRE, European Union and Free State Saxonia) to R.H. is gratefully acknowledged.
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All authors contributed to the design or execution of experiments, or analysed data. H.E. supervised the experiments, carried out demineralization experiments, performed collagen isolation, and wrote the manuscript. P.S. performed SEM and HRTEM, and prepared figures. A.E. collected, prepared and identified sponge samples and contributed to writing the manuscript. M.M., D.V.V., K.K. and S.L.M. performed NEXAFS experiments and designed figures. M.T. and V.V.B. carried out collagen modification. S.H. performed FTIR and prepared figures. E.B. performed NMR. R.D. performed Edman degradation and R.H. and T.L. performed amino acid analysis and mass spectrometry. M.C., H.K., C.S., Y.Y., E.C., D.A., M.L., C.B. and J.T.-O. were involved in acquiring and interpreting the mass spectrometric data, and M.C., H.K., E.C., D.A. and J.T.-O contributed to the writing of the manuscript. H.W., M.C., H.E., G.W., J.R., V.S. and E.B. analysed the results with regard to evolutionary implications and mechanisms of biomineralization, designed concepts, and wrote the manuscript.
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Ehrlich, H., Deutzmann, R., Brunner, E. et al. Mineralization of the metre-long biosilica structures of glass sponges is templated on hydroxylated collagen. Nature Chem 2, 1084–1088 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.899
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.899
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