Department of BioMechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2011 Feb;86(1):15-32. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-185X.2010.00132.x.
Adhesive systems are ubiquitous in benthic animals and play a key role in diverse functions such as locomotion, food capture, mating, burrow building, and defence. For benthic animals that release adhesives, surface and material properties and external morphology have received little attention compared to the biochemical content of the adhesives. We address temporary adhesion of benthic animals from the following three structural levels: (a) the biochemical content of the adhesive secretions, (b) the micro- and mesoscopic surface geometry and material properties of the adhesive organs, and (c) the macroscopic external morphology of the adhesive organs. We show that temporary adhesion of benthic animals is affected by three structural levels: the adhesive secretions provide binding to the substratum at a molecular scale, whereas surface geometry and external morphology increase the contact area with the irregular and unpredictable profile of the substratum from micro- to macroscales. The biochemical content of the adhesive secretions differs between abiotic and biotic substrata. The biochemistry of the adhesives suitable for biotic substrata differentiates further according to whether adhesion must be activated quickly (e.g. as a defensive mechanism) or more slowly (e.g. during adhesion of parasites). De-adhesion is controlled by additional secretions, enzymes, or mechanically. Due to deformability, the adhesive organs achieve intimate contact by adapting their surface profile to the roughness of the substratum. Surface projections, namely cilia, cuticular villi, papillae, and papulae increase the contact area or penetrate through the secreted adhesive to provide direct contact with the substratum. We expect that the same three structural levels investigated here will also affect the performance of artificial adhesive systems.
黏附系统在底栖动物中无处不在，在多种功能中发挥着关键作用，例如运动、捕食、交配、挖掘和防御。对于释放黏附物的底栖动物来说，与黏附物的生化含量相比，表面和材料特性以及外部形态受到的关注较少。我们从以下三个结构层次来研究底栖动物的临时黏附：（a）黏附分泌物的生化内容，（b）黏附器官的微观和介观表面几何形状和材料特性，以及（c）黏附器官的宏观外部形态。我们表明，底栖动物的临时黏附受到三个结构层次的影响：黏附分泌物在分子尺度上为与基底的结合提供了结合，而表面几何形状和外部形态则从微观到宏观尺度增加了与基底不规则和不可预测轮廓的接触面积。黏附分泌物的生化内容在无生命和有生命的基底之间有所不同。适用于有生命基底的黏附物的生物化学根据黏附是否需要快速（例如作为防御机制）或更缓慢（例如寄生虫黏附时）激活而进一步区分。去黏附受额外分泌物、酶或机械控制。由于可变形性，黏附器官通过使表面轮廓适应基底的粗糙度来实现紧密接触。表面突起，即纤毛、表皮小刺、乳突和丘疹，增加了接触面积或通过分泌的黏附物穿透以与基底直接接触。我们预计，这里研究的相同三个结构层次也将影响人工黏附系统的性能。
