The cuttlefish Sepia officinalis (Sepiidae, Cephalopoda) constructs cuttlebone from a liquid-crystal precursor.

ABSTRACT: Cuttlebone, the sophisticated buoyancy device of cuttlefish, is made of extensive superposed chambers that have a complex internal arrangement of calcified pillars and organic membranes. It has not been clear how this structure is assembled. We find that the membranes result from a myriad of minor membranes initially filling the whole chamber, made of nanofibres evenly oriented within each membrane and slightly rotated with respect to those of adjacent membranes, producing a helical arrangement. We propose that the organism secretes a chitin-protein complex, which self-organizes layer-by-layer as a cholesteric liquid crystal, whereas the pillars are made by viscous fingering. The liquid crystallization mechanism permits us to homologize the elements of the cuttlebone with those of other co

SUBMITTER: Checa AG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4471886 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature