Journal
CHEMISTRY-A EUROPEAN JOURNAL
Volume 19, Issue 19, Pages 5790-5804Publisher
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201204412
Keywords
biocatalysis; bioinorganic chemistry; biosilica; organic-inorganic hybrid composites; silicatein; spicules
Categories
Funding
- ERC [268476]
- German Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [SCHR 277/10-2]
- European Commission [215507, 286059]
- International Human Frontier Science Program
- Ministry of Land and Resources of the People's Republic of China [201011005-06]
- International S & T Cooperation Program of China [2008DFA00980]
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The inorganic matrix of the siliceous skeletal elements of sponges, that is, spicules, is formed of amorphous biosilica. Until a decade ago, it remained unclear how the hard biosilica monoliths of the spicules are formed in sponges that live in a silica-poor (<50 mu m) aquatic environment. The following two discoveries caused a paradigm shift and allowed an elucidation of the processes underlying spicule formation; first the discovery that in the spicules only one major protein, silicatein, exists and second, that this protein displays a bio-catalytical, enzymatic function. These findings caused a paradigm shift, since silicatein is the first enzyme that catalyzes the formation of an inorganic polymer from an inorganic monomeric substrate. In the present review the successive steps, following the synthesis of the silicatein product, biosilica, and resulting in the formation of the hard monolithic spicules is given. The new insight is assumed to open new horizons in the field of biotechnology and also in biomedicine.
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