TY - JOUR
T1 - Growth dynamics and amorphous-to-crystalline phase transformation in natural nacre
AU - Otter, L. M.
AU - Eder, K.
AU - Kilburn, M. R.
AU - Yang, L.
AU - O’Reilly, P.
AU - Nowak, D. B.
AU - Cairney, J. M.
AU - Jacob, D. E.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Eden Mussels for providing M. galloprovincialis. We acknowledge Assoc. Prof Jane Williamson and Josh Aldridge for assistance at the Macquarie Seawater Facility and we are grateful to Dr. Wayne O’Connor (Port Stephens Fisheries Centre, NSW Department of Primary Industries) for insightful discussions on bivalve aquaculture. We thank Dr. Paul Guagliardo for his assistance with NanoSIMS analysis and Dr. Sean Murray for his assistance with SEM imaging, Dr. Timothy D. Murphy for assistance with quantitative SEM-EDS mapping and Dr. Oscar Branson for discussions on APT data. The authors are grateful for the scientific and technical input and support from Microscopy Australia at the University of Sydney and the University of Western Australia. We acknowledge the Macquarie University Faculty of Science and Engineering Microscope Facility (MQFoSE MF) for access to its instrumentation and support from Sue Lindsay. This study is supported by the Australian Research Council (DP160102081 and DP210101268 to D.E.J.) and a Beate Mocek Price of the German Mineralogical Society awarded to L.M.O.
Funding Information:
We thank Eden Mussels for providing M. galloprovincialis. We acknowledge Assoc. Prof Jane Williamson and Josh Aldridge for assistance at the Macquarie Seawater Facility and we are grateful to Dr. Wayne O’Connor (Port Stephens Fisheries Centre, NSW Department of Primary Industries) for insightful discussions on bivalve aquaculture. We thank Dr. Paul Guagliardo for his assistance with NanoSIMS analysis and Dr. Sean Murray for his assistance with SEM imaging, Dr. Timothy D. Murphy for assistance with quantitative SEM-EDS mapping and Dr. Oscar Branson for discussions on APT data. The authors are grateful for the scientific and technical input and support from Microscopy Australia at the University of Sydney and the University of Western Australia. We acknowledge the Macquarie University Faculty of Science and Engineering Microscope Facility (MQFoSE MF) for access to its instrumentation and support from Sue Lindsay. This study is supported by the Australian Research Council (DP160102081 and DP210101268 to D.E.J.) and a Beate Mocek Price of the German Mineralogical Society awarded to L.M.O.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - Biominerals, such as nacreous bivalve shells, are important archives of environmental information. Most marine calcifiers form their shells from amorphous calcium carbonate, hypothesised to occur via particle attachment and stepwise crystallisation of metastable precursor phases. However, the mechanism of this transformation, including the incorporation of trace elements used for environmental reconstructions, are poorly constrained. Here, using shells of the Mediterranean mussel, we explore the formation of nacre from the meso- to the atomic scale. We use a combination of strontium pulse-chase labelling experiments in aquaculture and correlated micro- to sub-nanoscale analysis to show that nacre grows in a dynamic two-step process with extensional and space-filling growth components. Furthermore, we show that nacre crystallizes via localised dissolution and reprecipitation within nanogranules. Our findings elucidate how stepwise crystallization pathways affect trace element incorporation in natural biominerals, while preserving their intricate hierarchical ultrastructure.
AB - Biominerals, such as nacreous bivalve shells, are important archives of environmental information. Most marine calcifiers form their shells from amorphous calcium carbonate, hypothesised to occur via particle attachment and stepwise crystallisation of metastable precursor phases. However, the mechanism of this transformation, including the incorporation of trace elements used for environmental reconstructions, are poorly constrained. Here, using shells of the Mediterranean mussel, we explore the formation of nacre from the meso- to the atomic scale. We use a combination of strontium pulse-chase labelling experiments in aquaculture and correlated micro- to sub-nanoscale analysis to show that nacre grows in a dynamic two-step process with extensional and space-filling growth components. Furthermore, we show that nacre crystallizes via localised dissolution and reprecipitation within nanogranules. Our findings elucidate how stepwise crystallization pathways affect trace element incorporation in natural biominerals, while preserving their intricate hierarchical ultrastructure.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85153479666&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-023-37814-0
DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-37814-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 37080977
AN - SCOPUS:85153479666
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 14
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 2254
ER -
