Sugary interfaces mitigate contact damage where stiff meets soft.
The byssal threads of the fan shell Atrina pectinata are non-living functional materials intimately associated with living tissue, which provide an intriguing paradigm of bionic interface for robust load-bearing device. An interfacial load-bearing protein (A. pectinata foot protein-1, apfp-1) with L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA)-containing and mannose-binding domains has been characterized from Atrina's foot. apfp-1 was localized at the interface between stiff byssus and the soft tissue by immunochemical staining and confocal Raman imaging, implying that apfp-1 is an interfacial linker between the byssus and soft tissue, that is, the DOPA-containing domain interacts with itself and other byssal proteins via Fe3(+)-DOPA complexes, and the mannose-binding domain interacts with the soft tissue and cell membranes. Both DOPA- and sugar-mediated bindings are reversible and robust under wet conditions. This work shows the combination of DOPA and sugar chemistry at asymmetric interfaces is unprecedented and highly relevant to bionic interface design for tissue engineering and bionic devices.
Division of Integrative Biosciences and Biotechnology, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, Republic of Korea.
Hee Young
HY
Yoo
Division of Integrative Biosciences and Biotechnology, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, Republic of Korea.
Mihaela
M
Iordachescu
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2V4.
Jun
J
Huang
Laboratory of Biology of Marine Organisms and Biomimetics, Research Institute for Biosciences, University of Mons, 7000 Mons, Belgium.|Laboratory of Cell Biology, Research Institute for Biosciences, University of Mons, 7000 Mons, Belgium.
Elise
E
Hennebert
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, Republic of Korea.
Sangsik
S
Kim
Center for Plant Aging Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Daegu 42988, Republic of Korea.
Sangchul
S
Rho
School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
Mathias
M
Foo
Laboratory of Biology of Marine Organisms and Biomimetics, Research Institute for Biosciences, University of Mons, 7000 Mons, Belgium.
Patrick
P
Flammang
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2V4.
Hongbo
H
Zeng
Center for Plant Aging Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Daegu 42988, Republic of Korea.|Department of New Biology, DGIST, Daegu 42988, Republic of Korea.
Daehee
D
Hwang
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA.
J Herbert
JH
Waite
Division of Integrative Biosciences and Biotechnology, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, Republic of Korea.|School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, Republic of Korea.
Dong Soo
0000-0002-2487-2255
DS
Hwang