Center for Photonics and 2D Materials, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Institutsky Lane 9, Dolgoprudny 141701, Moscow Region, Russia.
Department of Physics and Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials, Swansea University Bay Campus, Fabian Way, Swansea SA1 8EN, UK.
Soft Matter. 2024 Jul 24;20(29):5635-5651. doi: 10.1039/d4sm00491d.
The pigments known as the melanins are widely recognized for their responsibility in the coloration of human skin, eyes, hair, and minimising the harmful effects of solar ultraviolet radiation. But specialists are aware that the melanins are present in all living kingdoms, barring viruses, and have functionality that extends beyond neutralizing ionising radiation. The ubiquitous presence of melanin in almost all human organs, recognized in recent years, as well as the presence of melanin in organisms that are evolutionarily distant from each other, indicate the fundamental importance of this class of material for all life forms. In this review, we argue for the need to accept melanins as the fourth primordial class of biological polymers, along with nucleic acids, proteins and polysaccharides. We consistently compare the properties of these canonical biological polymers with the properties of melanin and highlight key features that fundamentally distinguish melanins, their function and its mysteries.
众所周知，黑色素是一类色素，广泛存在于人类皮肤、眼睛、头发中，能够减轻太阳紫外线辐射的有害影响。但是专家们意识到，黑色素存在于所有的生物王国中，除了病毒，它还有超越中和电离辐射的功能。近年来人们发现黑色素几乎存在于人体所有器官中，而且在进化上相距甚远的生物体中也存在黑色素，这表明这种物质对所有生命形式都具有重要意义。在这篇综述中，我们认为有必要将黑色素作为与核酸、蛋白质和多糖并列的第四类原始生物聚合物来接受。我们一致地比较了这些典型生物聚合物与黑色素的性质，并强调了从根本上区分黑色素、其功能及其奥秘的关键特征。
