Department of Behavioral Biology, Institute of Cell and Systems Biology of Animals, Universität Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, 20146, Hamburg, Germany.
Department of Mammalogy and Palaeoanthropology, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, 20146, Hamburg, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2022 May 7;12(1):7499. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-11026-w.
The molluscan phylum is the second specious animal group with its taxa feeding on a variety of food sources. This is enabled by the radula, a chitinous membrane with embedded teeth, one important autapomorphy. Between species, radulae can vary in their morphology, mechanical, and chemical properties. With regard to chemical composition, some taxa (Polyplacophora and Patellogastropoda) were studied extensively in the past decades, due to their specificity to incorporate high proportions of iron, calcium, and silicon. There is, however, a huge lack of knowledge about radular composition in other taxa. The work presented aims at shedding light on the chemistry by performing energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analyses on 24 molluscan species, thereof two Polyplacophora, two Cephalopoda, and 20 Gastropoda, which was never done before in such a comprehensiveness. The elements and their proportions were documented for 1448 individual, mature teeth and hypotheses about potential biomineralization types were proposed. The presented work additionally comprises a detailed record on past studies about the chemical composition of molluscan teeth, which is an important basis for further investigation of the radular chemistry. The found disparity in elements detected, in their distribution and proportions highlights the diversity of evolutionary solutions, as it depicts multiple biomineralization types present within Mollusca.
软体动物门是第二大分类丰富的动物群体，其分类群以各种食物来源为食。这是通过齿舌实现的，齿舌是一种带有嵌入牙齿的几丁质膜，是一个重要的独特特征。在物种之间，齿舌的形态、机械和化学性质可能会有所不同。就化学成分而言，过去几十年中，由于某些类群（多板纲和腹足纲）具有特异性，可以纳入高比例的铁、钙和硅，因此对它们进行了广泛的研究。然而，其他类群的齿舌组成知之甚少。目前这项工作旨在通过对 24 种软体动物物种进行能量色散 X 射线光谱分析来阐明化学性质，其中包括 2 种多板纲、2 种头足纲和 20 种腹足纲，这在如此全面的范围内以前从未做过。记录了 1448 个成熟齿舌的元素及其比例，并提出了关于潜在生物矿化类型的假设。目前这项工作还包括对软体动物齿舌化学组成的过去研究的详细记录，这是进一步研究齿舌化学的重要基础。所检测到的元素、它们的分布和比例的差异突出了进化解决方案的多样性，因为它描绘了软体动物中存在的多种生物矿化类型。
