Abstract

ARROYO-LORANCA, Raquel Gabriela et al. Effect of ion and protein concentration of Ps19, a shell protein from Pteria sterna, on calcium carbonate polymorph. Biotecnia [online]. 2023, vol.25, n.2, pp.136-145.  Epub Aug 25, 2023. ISSN 1665-1456.  https://doi.org/10.18633/biotecnia.v25i2.1885.

Calcium carbonate is present in many biological structures such as bivalve shells, which is composed mainly of two CaCO3 polymorphs: calcite and aragonite. However, other forms of calcium carbonate exist like vaterite and amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) that are not commonly reported. Polymorph selection is influenced by salt concentration, cofactor ions, and the presence of shell matrix proteins (SMPs) which regulates calcium carbonate deposition, among other factors. In this study, in vitro calcium carbonate crystallization of four different saline solutions (1: 40 mM CaCl2, MgCl2, 100 mM NaHCO3; 2: CaCl2, 100 mM Na2CO3; 3: 40 mM CaCl2, MgSO4, 100 mM Na2CO3; 4: CaCl2/MgCl2, 100 mM NaHCO3) at two molarities (40 o 100 mM) was evaluated with increased concentrations of the Ps19 protein (0.2, 0.7 y 1.2 µg/µL), an insoluble extracted protein from the Pteria sterna shell, previously described as a promotor of aragonite platelet crystallization. In vitro crystallizations showed that Ps19 is capable to induce aragonite and calcite deposition in a dose-dependent manner, but also vaterite under certain conditions, acting as a promoter and inhibitor of crystallization. The results contribute to understand how Ps19 control precipitation of calcium polymorphs in the growth of the prismatic and nacre layer of the shell of P. sterna.

Keywords : Mollusk; shell protein; calcium carbonate; crystallization; nacre.

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