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Mussel-designed Protective Coatings for Compliant Substrates

¹ Graduate Program in BioMolecular Science & Engineering,
² Marine Science Institute, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA

View larger version (65K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 1. A mussel attached by a byssus to glass (A) and a cartoon of the same mussel on the half-shell (B), showing the relationship of the foot, stem, threads, and attachment plaque.

View larger version (56K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 2. Microstructure of mussel byssal cuticle. (a) SEM of M. galloprovincialis distal thread with partial delamination of cuticle, exposing the underlying collagenous core. (b) TEM of transverse cross-section of M. galloprovincialis distal thread cuticle, illustrating its granular composite morphology as well as the interior granular structure, osmium-tetroxide-stained for contrast. (c) AFM of untreated transverse cross-section of cuticle of M. galloprovincialis distal thread, confirming the observations made in TEM.

View larger version (27K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 3. Mytilus edulis foot protein (mefp-1) and the other mfp-1s are all highly repetitive proteins. The consensus repeat sequence in mefp-1 is a decapeptide. Lys-2, Tyr-5, Pro-6, Tyr-9, and Lys-10 are highly conserved. Residues Pro-6, Pro-7, and Tyr-9 are completely post-translationally hydroxylated. Conversion of Pro-3, Tyr-5 (gray), in contrast, is < 30%. Mefp-1 contains a non-repetitive N-terminus, followed by mostly decapeptide and some hexapeptide sequences.

View larger version (14K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 4. Dopa side-chains of mfp-1 are susceptible to oxidation. A two-electron oxidation produces dopaquinone, which is able produce 2 semi-quinones by reverse dismutation with unreacted dopa. The Dopa semi-quinones can couple to produce di-dopa cross-links.

View larger version (16K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 5. Dopa side-chains in mfp-1s coordinate both soluble and insoluble metal oxides. Lee et al. (2006) have shown that the coordinate chelate bond between Dopa and a TiO2 surface has half the interaction energy of a covalent bond, but re-forms spontaneously following breakage.

View larger version (12K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 6. Comparison of the behavior of mefp-1 and mefp-3 following introduction between 2 mica surfaces, as measured by the surface forces apparatus (Lin et al., 2007). Like a good adhesive, mefp-3 both coats and bridges the 2 mica surfaces; mefp-1, in contrast, only coats each surface.