Department of Biology, 155 Center for Natural Sciences, Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York 14850.
Integr Comp Biol. 2002 Dec;42(6):1164-71. doi: 10.1093/icb/42.6.1164.
Many marine invertebrates form strong, temporary attachments using viscoelastic gels. To better understand these adhesives, an analysis of what is known of gel structure and function was performed. There are different ways of making gels, ranging from entangling of giant glycoproteins to crosslinking of smaller proteins. The mechanics of the gel depend largely on the size of the polymer, its concentration, and whether it is crosslinked. Compared to gels such as mammalian mucus, the mechanics of adhesive mucous gels often appear to depend more heavily on relatively small proteins than on megadalton-sized glycoproteins. In addition, changes in concentration and the presence of specific proteins have been associated with the change from a non-adhesive to an adhesive form. The attachment strengths produced by different gels at different concentrations were compared with the changes in attachment strength seen in living animals. These data suggest that changes in concentration are not sufficient to account for adhesion. Thus, it is likely that the changes in protein composition may play a large role.
许多海洋无脊椎动物使用黏弹性凝胶形成牢固的临时附着。为了更好地理解这些粘合剂，对凝胶的结构和功能进行了分析。有不同的方法来制作凝胶，从巨大糖蛋白的缠结到较小蛋白质的交联。凝胶的力学性能在很大程度上取决于聚合物的大小、浓度以及是否交联。与哺乳动物黏液等凝胶相比，黏附性黏液凝胶的力学性能似乎更依赖于相对较小的蛋白质，而不是兆道尔顿大小的糖蛋白。此外，浓度的变化和特定蛋白质的存在与从不粘到粘的形式的转变有关。不同浓度的不同凝胶产生的附着强度与活体动物中观察到的附着强度变化进行了比较。这些数据表明，浓度的变化不足以解释粘附现象。因此，蛋白质组成的变化可能起很大作用。
