Nanolattice-Forming Hybrid Collagens in Protective Shark Egg Cases

Nanolattice-Forming Hybrid Collagens in Protective Shark Egg Cases

Biomacromolecules

10.1021/acs.biomac.2c00341

http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.2c00341

Rubayn Goh, Eric Yoshida, Eric Schaible, Rachel Behrens, Christophe A. Monnier, Bradley Killingsworth, Kiat Whye Kong, Shu Hui Hiew, Ali Miserez, Shawn Hoon, J. Herbert Waite

Materials Chemistry, Polymers and Plastics, Biomaterials, Bioengineering

24 June 2022

Goh, R., Yoshida, E., Schaible, E., Behrens, R., Monnier, C. A., Killingsworth, B., Kong, K. W., Hiew, S. H., Miserez, A., Hoon, S., & Waite, J. H. (2022). Nanolattice-Forming Hybrid Collagens in Protective Shark Egg Cases. Biomacromolecules, 23(7), 2878–2890. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.2c00341

Nanoscopic structural control with long-range ordering remains a profound challenge in nanomaterial fabrication. The nanoarchitectured egg cases of elasmobranchs rely on a hierarchically ordered latticework for their protective function─serving as an exemplary system for nanoscale self-assembly. Although the proteinaceous precursors are known to undergo intermediate liquid crystalline phase transitions before being structurally arrested in the final nanolattice architecture, their sequences have so far remained unknown. By leveraging RNA-seq and proteomic techniques, we identified a cohort of nanolattice-forming proteins comprising a collagenous midblock flanked by domains typically associated with innate immunity and network-forming collagens. Structurally homologous proteins were found in the genomes of other egg-case-producing cartilaginous fishes, suggesting a conserved molecular self-assembly strategy. The identity and stabilizing role of cross-links were subsequently elucidated using mass spectrometry and in situ small-angle X-ray scattering. Our findings provide a new design approach for protein-based liquid crystalline elastomers and the self-assembly of nanolattices.

Publisher Copyright

This research / project is supported by the Ministry of Education - Academic Research Fund Tier 3
Grant Reference no. : MOE 2019-T3-1-012

The research reported here was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at UC Santa Barbara (NSF DMR 1720256) through IRG-3.

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Biomacromolecules, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.2c00341

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