%0 Book Section %1 weiss2019mineralchitin %A Weiss, Ingrid M. %B Extracellular Sugar-Based Biopolymers Matrices %C Cham %D 2019 %I Springer %K myown %P 57-93 %R 10.1007/978-3-030-12919-4_2 %T Mineral-Chitin Composites in Molluscs %U https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12919-4_2 %V 12 %X Chitin mineralization is just one of the many challenging aspects of biomineralization, the process by which living organisms produce minerals. The ability to form genetically determined mineralized skeletons must have existed for the past 550 million years. However, key molecular and evolutionary mechanisms which led to this ability remain enigmatic. Our understanding of enzymatic and biosynthetic aspects of mineralized chitinous exoskeletons is still in its infancy. The chitin synthases of molluscs differ from chitin synthases of all other organisms mainly in two aspects: A myosin domain and highly conserved, mollusc-specific patterns of charged amino acids. The latter bear the potential to interact in a pH-dependent manner, either with themselves or with mineral phases and/or with highly charged soluble or insoluble biomineralization proteins. The molecular diversity of these so-called biomineralization proteins is enormous, perhaps one of the reasons for deflecting attention away from mollusc chitin synthases until today. This chapter aims at closing conceptual gaps related to the biological dynamics of transmembrane myosin chitin synthases, with their cytoskeleton-based signaling potential for regulating microvilli and extracellular pattern formation on multi-scale levels. %& 2 %@ 978-3-030-12919-4

@incollection{weiss2019mineralchitin, abstract = {Chitin mineralization is just one of the many challenging aspects of biomineralization, the process by which living organisms produce minerals. The ability to form genetically determined mineralized skeletons must have existed for the past 550 million years. However, key molecular and evolutionary mechanisms which led to this ability remain enigmatic. Our understanding of enzymatic and biosynthetic aspects of mineralized chitinous exoskeletons is still in its infancy. The chitin synthases of molluscs differ from chitin synthases of all other organisms mainly in two aspects: A myosin domain and highly conserved, mollusc-specific patterns of charged amino acids. The latter bear the potential to interact in a pH-dependent manner, either with themselves or with mineral phases and/or with highly charged soluble or insoluble biomineralization proteins. The molecular diversity of these so-called biomineralization proteins is enormous, perhaps one of the reasons for deflecting attention away from mollusc chitin synthases until today. This chapter aims at closing conceptual gaps related to the biological dynamics of transmembrane myosin chitin synthases, with their cytoskeleton-based signaling potential for regulating microvilli and extracellular pattern formation on multi-scale levels.}, added-at = {2019-07-25T22:46:56.000+0200}, address = {Cham}, author = {Weiss, Ingrid M.}, biburl = {https://puma.ub.uni-stuttgart.de/bibtex/2631c393ccec470832cafc362587cfef8/ingridweiss}, booktitle = {Extracellular Sugar-Based Biopolymers Matrices}, chapter = 2, doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-12919-4_2}, interhash = {6eae2f736d8a9c2bdf163cc29f1287e7}, intrahash = {631c393ccec470832cafc362587cfef8}, isbn = {978-3-030-12919-4}, keywords = {myown}, pages = {57-93}, publisher = {Springer}, series = {Biologically-Inspired Systems}, timestamp = {2019-07-25T20:46:56.000+0200}, title = {Mineral-Chitin Composites in Molluscs}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12919-4_2}, volume = 12, year = 2019 }