Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemistry, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw 50-370, Poland.
Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wroclaw 50-422, Poland.
Biomacromolecules. 2023 Sep 11;24(9):4042-4050. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.3c00395. Epub 2023 Aug 22.
Biomineralization of fish otoliths is regulated by macromolecules, such as proteins, whose presence is crucial for the functionality and properties of these mineralized structures. Special regulatory effects are exerted by intrinsically disordered proteins, such as the polyanionic Starmaker-like protein from medaka, a homolog of zebrafish Starmaker. In this study, we employed a set of bioinspired mineralization experiments with a single diffusion system to investigate the effect of the Starmaker-like protein on calcium carbonate biominerals with regards to the prior exposition of the protein to calcium or carbonate ions. Interestingly, the bioinspired minerals grown in the presence of the Starmaker-like protein in calcium- or carbonate-type experiments differ significantly in terms of morphology and protein distribution within the crystals. Our deeper analysis shows that the Starmaker-like protein action is a result of the environmental conditions to which it is exposed. These findings may be of special interest in the areas of biomineralization process pathways and biomaterial sciences.
鱼耳石的生物矿化受大分子调控，如蛋白质，其存在对这些矿化结构的功能和特性至关重要。一些无序蛋白具有特殊的调控作用，例如来自斑马鱼 StarMaker 同源物的多阴离子 Medaka StarMaker 样蛋白。在这项研究中，我们采用了一组具有单一扩散系统的仿生矿化实验，研究了 StarMaker 样蛋白对碳酸钙生物矿化的影响，以及该蛋白预先暴露于钙离子或碳酸根离子的情况。有趣的是，在钙型或碳酸型实验中存在 StarMaker 样蛋白的仿生矿物在形态和晶体内部蛋白质分布方面存在显著差异。我们的深入分析表明，StarMaker 样蛋白的作用是其暴露于环境条件的结果。这些发现可能在生物矿化过程途径和生物材料科学领域具有特殊意义。
