Biotech materials made simple—crystal structures altered by a single protein
Friday, March 13, 2015 - 05:30
in Physics & Chemistry
In nacre, layer lattices of inorganic calcium carbonate alternate with layers of organic material. Chitin, collagen and various proteins ensure that the calcium carbonate grows in these defined layers. What role the proteins play during growth had not previously been explained, but the assumption was that several proteins acted together to control the structure of the calcium carbonate lattice as well as forming part of the nacreous layers. However, Ingrid Weiss of the INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials in Saarbrücken and her colleague Boaz Pokroy at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology have now shown that the crystal lattice of calcium carbonate can be altered using just a single protein species.