Convergent Evolution of Adhesive Properties in Leaf Insect Eggs and Plant Seeds: Cross-Kingdom Bioinspiration

ABSTRACT: Plants and animals are often used as a source for inspiration in biomimetic engineering. However, stronger engagement of biologists is often required in the field of biomimetics. The actual strength of using biological systems as a source of inspiration for human problem solving does not lie in a perfect copy of a single system but in the extraction of core principles from similarly functioning systems that have convergently solved the same problem in their evolution. Adhesive systems are an example of such convergent traits that independently evolved in different organisms. We herein compare two analogous adhesive systems, one from plants seeds and one from insect eggs, to test their properties and functional principles for differences and similarities in order to evaluate the input that

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PROVIDER: S-EPMC9680409 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature