A new method for obtaining barnacle cement in the liquid state for polymerization studies

Cheung, P. J.; Ruggieri, George D.; Nigrelli, Ross F.

doi:10.1007/bf00391263

Cited by 48 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…For studies utilizing unpolymerized barnacle cement, cement droplets were obtained by hand using a method inspired by Cheung and colleagues (Cheung et al, 1977). Cement production is continuous throughout a barnacle's life (Saroyan et al, 1970), which makes the collection of unpolymerized cement possible.…”

Section: Unpolymerized Barnacle Cementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Barnacle cement: a polymerization model based on evolutionary concepts

Dickinson

Vega

Wahl

et al. 2009

Journal of Experimental Biology

122

135

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SUMMARYEnzymes and biochemical mechanisms essential to survival are under extreme selective pressure and are highly conserved through evolutionary time. We applied this evolutionary concept to barnacle cement polymerization, a process critical to barnacle fitness that involves aggregation and cross-linking of proteins. The biochemical mechanisms of cement polymerization remain largely unknown. We hypothesized that this process is biochemically similar to blood clotting, a critical physiological response that is also based on aggregation and cross-linking of proteins. Like key elements of vertebrate and invertebrate blood clotting, barnacle cement polymerization was shown to involve proteolytic activation of enzymes and structural precursors, transglutaminase cross-linking and assembly of fibrous proteins. Proteolytic activation of structural proteins maximizes the potential for bonding interactions with other proteins and with the surface. Transglutaminase cross-linking reinforces cement integrity. Remarkably, epitopes and sequences homologous to bovine trypsin and human transglutaminase were identified in barnacle cement with tandem mass spectrometry and/or western blotting. Akin to blood clotting, the peptides generated during proteolytic activation functioned as signal molecules, linking a molecular level event (protein aggregation) to a behavioral response (barnacle larval settlement). Our results draw attention to a highly conserved protein polymerization mechanism and shed light on a long-standing biochemical puzzle. We suggest that barnacle cement polymerization is a specialized form of wound healing. The polymerization mechanism common between barnacle cement and blood may be a theme for many marine animal glues. Supplementary material available online at

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Section: Unpolymerized Barnacle Cementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unpolymerized barnacle cement was collected using a method inspired by Cheung et al (Cheung et al, 1977). Unlike previously described collection methods, unpolymerized cement could be collected in microliter quantities enabling a wide-range of biochemical and physical assays to be carried out.…”

Section: Collection Of Unpolymerized Cementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barnacle cement: a polymerization model based on evolutionary concepts

Dickinson

Vega

Wahl

et al. 2009

Journal of Experimental Biology

122

135

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“…The cement secreted by these organisms is initially fluid and able to infiltrate deeply the pores and crevices of the substratum. After polymerization, the cement becomes a material with high cohesive strength, interlocking with the substratum (Cheung et al, 1977;Yule and Walker, 1987). This is corroborated by observations made on the cement of barnacles (Dougherty, 1990), tubeworms (Roscoe and Walker, 1995) or mussels (Crisp et al, 1985), which forms a perfect cast of the surface features of the substratum after the animal had been carefully detached.…”

Section: Attachment Strength Of Tube Feet On Rough Substratamentioning

confidence: 99%

Adhesion of echinoderm tube feet to rough surfaces

Santos

Gorb

Jamar

et al. 2005

Journal of Experimental Biology

108

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SUMMARY Echinoderms attach strongly and temporarily to the substratum by means of specialized organs, the podia or tube feet. The latter consist of a basal extensible cylinder, the stem, which bears an apical flattened disc. The disc repeatedly attaches to and detaches from the substratum through adhesive and de-adhesive secretions. In their activities, echinoderms have to cope with substrata of varying degrees of roughness as well as with changing hydrodynamic conditions, and therefore their tube feet must adapt their attachment strength to these environmental constraints. This study is the first attempt to evaluate the influence of substratum roughness on the temporary adhesion of echinoderm tube feet and to investigate the material properties of their contact surface. It was demonstrated that tube foot discs are very soft (E-modulus of 6.0 and 8.1 kPa for sea stars and sea urchins, respectively), have viscoelastic properties and adapt their surface to the substratum profile. They also show increased adhesion on a rough substratum in comparison to its smooth counterpart, which is due mostly to an increase in the geometrical area of contact between the disc and the surface. Tenacity (force per unit area) increases with roughness [e.g. 0.18 and 0.34 MPa on smooth polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA), 0.21 and 0.47 MPa on rough PMMA for sea stars and sea urchins, respectively] if only the projected surface area of the adhesive footprint is considered. However, if this tenacity is corrected to take into account the actual substratum 3-D profile, surface roughness no longer influences significantly the corrected adhesion strength(e.g. 0.18 and 0.34 MPa on smooth PMMA, 0.19 and 0.42 MPa on rough PMMA for sea stars and sea urchins, respectively). It can be hypothesized that, under slow self-imposed forces, disc material behaves viscously to adapt to substratum roughness while the adhesive fills out only very small surface irregularities (in the nanometer range). It is deposited as a thin film ideal for generation of strong adhesion. Under short pulses of wave-generated forces, attached discs probably behave elastically, distributing the stress along the entire contact area, in order to avoid crack generation and thus precluding disc peeling and tube foot detachment.

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“…Typically this was from 1641 to 1630 cm −1 for 25 wt% BCS and is associated with the formation of β-sheet structures (44)(45)(46). In nature β-sheet proteins are associated with animal "glues" for example barnacles sticking to metal surfaces [56] where this material is typically very strong high viscosity, insoluble and adherent [57]. The formation of this material in a sliding contact raises a number of questions: is this behaviour representative of in vivo MoM implant lubrication?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of a small-scale wear test for CoCrMo specimens with human synovial fluid

et al. 2018

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A B S T R A C TA new test was developed to measure friction and wear of hip implant materials under reciprocating sliding conditions. The method requires a very small amount of lubricant (< 3 ml) which allows testing of human synovial fluid. Friction and wear of Cobalt Chromium Molybdenum (CoCrMo) material pairs were measured for a range of model and human synovial fluid samples. The initial development of the test assessed the effect of fluid volume and bovine calf serum (BCS) concentration on friction and wear. In a second series of tests human synovial fluid (HSF) was used. The wear scar size (depth and volume) on the disc was dependent on protein content and reduced significantly for increasing BCS concentration. The results showed that fluid volumes of < 1.5 ml were affected by evaporative loss effectively increasing the protein concentration resulting in anomalously lower wear. At the end of the test thick deposits were observed in and around the wear scars on the disc and ball; these were analysed by Infrared Reflection-Absorption Spectroscopy. The deposits were composed primarily of denatured proteins and similar IR spectra were obtained from the BCS and HSF tests. The analysis confirmed the importance of SF proteins in determining wear of CoCrMo couples.

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A new method for obtaining barnacle cement in the liquid state for polymerization studies

Cited by 48 publications

References 14 publications

Barnacle cement: a polymerization model based on evolutionary concepts

Barnacle cement: a polymerization model based on evolutionary concepts

Adhesion of echinoderm tube feet to rough surfaces

The development of a small-scale wear test for CoCrMo specimens with human synovial fluid

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