On The Primitive Significance of the Byssus in the Bivalvia and its Effects in Evolution

Yonge, C. M.

doi:10.1017/s0025315400004495

Cited by 152 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Mytilid physiology, biochemistry, natural history and genetics are well established. An extended biomaterial of mussels, the byssus is a holdfast that mediates the sessile mode of life in individual and clustered mussels and is beautifully adapted to resist forces associated with lift and drag in rocky wave-swept seashores (Yonge, 1962;Bell and Gosline, 1996). Together, clustering tendency and byssus formation provide the vehicle for the dynamics and prominence of mussels as an intertidal foundation species (Denny and Gaylord, 2010).…”

Section: Current Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing environments and structure–property relationships in marine biomaterials

Waite

Broomell

2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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survival measures might produce inferior biomaterials; (2) during an abrupt and extreme environmental stress, one or more factors (e.g. waves and acidic run-off) might combine to briefly undermine the performance of materials in service, or (3) during a sustained change in the environment that is not physiologically stressful, the quality of normal biomaterials might deteriorate (Fig.1). To date, it remains unknown whether the first, second, third, or some combination of the three represents the most realistic perturbation of biomaterials serving an individual or community.Of the many different properties exhibited by extra-organismic biomaterials in the extended organism, many research groups including ours have focused on those with mechanical or load bearing properties. These are necessary in biomaterials that function in, for example, support, shelter, feeding, prey capture and adhesion. This review is about structure-function relationships in the load-bearing biomaterials of extended organisms and the hypothesis that the functional performance of biomaterials is linked to structures that are perturbed by a changing environment. The proposition is somewhat rhetorical because the toolkits to properly test it are incomplete and few are suited to field ecology. Notwithstanding this, the overview will briefly survey old and new techniques for studying structures and mechanical properties in marine biomaterials, survey how different test conditions affect structure and function in byssal threads, and speculate on what these studies might contribute to ecomechanics. Approaches to structure-function analysisA major goal in experimental biology is discovering relationships between structure and function. This goal is equally relevant to studying biomaterials, except that mechanical properties are used as proxies for function. It is understood that the measured mechanical properties may only be one of many in a multifunctional material. The conventional wisdom in materials science is that structure determines properties; thus, altering structure is likely to alter Accepted 31 May 2011 Summary Most marine organisms make functional biomolecular materials that extend to varying degrees ʻbeyond their skinsʼ. These materials are very diverse and include shells, spines, frustules, tubes, mucus trails, egg capsules and byssal threads, to mention a few. Because they are devoid of cells, these materials lack the dynamic maintenance afforded intra-organismic tissues and thus are usually assumed to be inherently more durable than their internalized counterparts. Recent advances in nanomechanics and submicron spectroscopic imaging have enabled the characterization of structure-property relationships in a variety of extraorganismic materials and provided important new insights about their adaptive functions and stability. Some structure-property relationships in byssal threads are described to show how available analytical methods can reveal hitherto unappreciated interdependences between these materials and their prevailing che...

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Section: Current Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing environments and structure–property relationships in marine biomaterials

Waite

Broomell

2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…Besides the established importance of holdfasts for organism development and survival (Yonge, 1962;Denny and Gaylord, 2010), holdfasts are also crucial for mariculture (Hurlburt and Hurlburt, 1975), as sentinels of contamination (Koide et al, 1982) and climate change (O'Donnell et al, 2013), as scaffolds for reef-like ecosystems (Witman, 1987), as mediators of marine fouling (Ricciardi, 1998), and as model systems for mimicking opportunistic wet adhesion . The last-mentioned has been the primary focus of research in my group and has considerable translational appeal to biomedical and industrial adhesive technologies, because the presence of moisture, salts, corrosion and films on surfaces subverts most known synthetic adhesives.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mussel adhesion – essential footwork

Waite

2017

Journal of Experimental Biology

513

744

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Robust adhesion to wet, salt-encrusted, corroded and slimy surfaces has been an essential adaptation in the life histories of sessile marine organisms for hundreds of millions of years, but it remains a major impasse for technology. Mussel adhesion has served as one of many model systems providing a fundamental understanding of what is required for attachment to wet surfaces. Most polymer engineers have focused on the use of 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanine (Dopa), a peculiar but abundant catecholic amino acid in mussel adhesive proteins. The premise of this Review is that although Dopa does have the potential for diverse cohesive and adhesive interactions, these will be difficult to achieve in synthetic homologs without a deeper knowledge of mussel biology; that is, how, at different length and time scales, mussels regulate the reactivity of their adhesive proteins. To deposit adhesive proteins onto target surfaces, the mussel foot creates an insulated reaction chamber with extreme reaction conditions such as low pH, low ionic strength and high reducing poise. These conditions enable adhesive proteins to undergo controlled fluid-fluid phase separation, surface adsorption and spreading, microstructure formation and, finally, solidification.

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“…Scallops characteristically swim with the hinge hindmost, in a direction perpendicular to the hinge axis, and the right valve lies undermost in the swimming and resting or attached positions (Stanley 1970). Attachment is byssal, with the sagittal plane in a non-vertical position (Yonge 1962). Shifting from a mobile to a more sedentary ecophenotype (or vice versa) occurs in parallel with anatomical modifications of the shell.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shell morphology changes in the scallop Aequipecten tehuelchus during its life span: a geometric morphometric approach

Márquez¹,

Amoroso²,

Sainz³

et al. 2010

Aquat. Biol.

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Shell morphology is a central feature of bivalve biology in fields such as taxonomy, evolution, and functional anatomy. When allometric shell growth occurs, traditional morphometric methods usually fail to provide robust, size-free shape variables. We used a more integrative approach, geometric morphometrics, to examine ontogenetic changes in the shell of the scallop Aequipecten tehuelchus. A single cohort that settled early in 2004 at a site in San José Gulf in northern Patagonia, Argentina, was sampled at irregular intervals over 5 yr. Different developmental stages had significant differences in shell shape. There was significant ontogenetic allometry, mainly reflected in the shape of the shell disc and the symmetry of the auricles. The most noticeable morphological changes in shell shape and size took place within the first 2 yr of life. Three different shell ecophenotypes were discriminated: spat, juveniles, and adults. Spat had a relatively large anterior auricle and a circular disc; auricles in juveniles were more symmetrical and the shell disc more elongated; and during the adult stage the auricles were small and asymmetrical and the disc elliptical. These 3 phenotypes may reflect changes in the scallop's life habits, as individuals develop from attached spat to actively swimming juveniles to more sedentary adults.

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On The Primitive Significance of the Byssus in the Bivalvia and its Effects in Evolution

Cited by 152 publications

References 17 publications

Changing environments and structure–property relationships in marine biomaterials

Changing environments and structure–property relationships in marine biomaterials

Mussel adhesion – essential footwork

Shell morphology changes in the scallop Aequipecten tehuelchus during its life span: a geometric morphometric approach

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