In nature, mineralization of hard tissues occurs due to the synergistic effect of components present in the organic matrix of these tissues, with templating and catalytic effects. In Suberites domuncula, a well-studied example of the class of demosponges, silica formation is mediated and templated by an axial proteinaceous filament with silicatein-α, one of the main components. But so far, the effect of other organic constituents from the proteinaceous filament on the catalytic effect of silicatein-α has not been studied in detail. Here we describe the synthesis of core-shell TiO 2@SiO2 and TiO2@ZrO2 nanofibers via grafting of silicatein-α onto a TiO2 nanowire backbone followed by a coassembly of silintaphin-1 through its specifically interacting domains. We show for the first time a linker-free, one-step funtionalization of metal oxides with silicatein-α using glutamate tag. In the presence of silintaphin-1 silicatein-α facilitates the formation of a dense layer of SiO2 or ZrO2 on the TiO2@protein backbone template. The immobilization of silicatein-α onto TiO2 probes was characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), optical light microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The coassembly of silicatein-α and silintaphin-1 may contribute to biomimetic approaches that pursue a controlled formation of patterned biosilica-based biomaterials. © 2011 American Chemical Society.
CITATION STYLE
André, R., Tahir, M. N., Link, T., Jochum, F. D., Kolb, U., Theato, P., … Tremel, W. (2011). Chemical mimicry: Hierarchical 1D TiO2@ZrO2 core-shell structures reminiscent of sponge spicules by the synergistic effect of silicatein-α and silintaphin-1. Langmuir, 27(9), 5464–5471. https://doi.org/10.1021/la200066q
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