key role of the surface membrane in why gastropod nacre grows in towers

The nacre of gastropod molluscs is intriguingly stacked in towers. It is covered by a surface membrane, which protects the growing nacre surface from damage when the animal withdraws into its shell. The surface membrane is supplied by vesicles that adhere to it on its mantle side and secretes interl...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 106; no. 1; pp. 38 - 43
Main Authors Checa, Antonio G, Cartwright, Julyan H.E, Willinger, Marc-Georg
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 06.01.2009
National Acad Sciences
Subjects
Abalone
animal anatomy
Animal organs
Animals
Aragonite
Biological Sciences
Biomineralogy
Calcification, Physiologic
Calcium Carbonate
Gastropoda
Gastropoda - anatomy & histology
Gastropoda - growth & development
Growth
Marine
Membranes - anatomy & histology
Membranes - growth & development
Minerals
Mollusca
molluscs
Mollusks
Organic foods
P branes
Physical Sciences
shell (molluscs)
String theory
Writing tablets
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The nacre of gastropod molluscs is intriguingly stacked in towers. It is covered by a surface membrane, which protects the growing nacre surface from damage when the animal withdraws into its shell. The surface membrane is supplied by vesicles that adhere to it on its mantle side and secretes interlamellar membranes from the nacre side. Nacre tablets rapidly grow in height and later expand sideways; the part of the tablet formed during this initial growth phase is here called the core. During initial growth, the tips of the cores remain permanently submerged within the surface membrane. The interlamellar membranes, which otherwise separate the nacre tablet lamellae, do not extend across cores, which are aligned in stacked tablets forming the tower axis, and thus towers of nacre tablets are continuous along the central axis. We hypothesize that in gastropod nacre growth core formation precedes that of the interlamellar membrane. Once the core is complete, a new interlamellar membrane, which covers the area of the tablet outside the core, detaches from the surface membrane. In this way, the tower-like growth of gastropod nacre becomes comprehensible.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
Edited by Steven M. Stanley, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, and approved November 25, 2008
Author contributions: A.G.C. and J.H.E.C. designed research; A.G.C., J.H.E.C., and M.-G.W. performed research; A.G.C. and M.-G.W. analyzed data; and A.G.C. wrote the paper.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0808796106