| Pacific Rim Symposium on Surfaces, Coatings and Interfaces (PacSurf 2016) | |
| Biomaterial Surfaces & Interfaces | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session BI-TuM |
| Session: | Bioimaging & Bionanotechnology |
| Presenter: | Kenan Fears, US Naval Research Laboratory, USA |
| Authors: | K. Fears, US Naval Research Laboratory, USA C. So, US Naval Research Laboratory, USA B. Orihuela, Duke University, USA D. Rittschof, Duke University, USA K. Wahl, US Naval Research Laboratory, USA |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The adhesion of hard foulers (e.g., barnacles and tubeworms) has plagued the maritime community for as long as mankind has been setting sail. Since the biological processes responsible for adhesion occur at buried interfaces, elucidating the mechanisms by which foulers adhere is challenging. Through the use of multiple fluorescent probes, peptides, and antibodies, we have been able to discern an unprecedented level of detail about biological processes that occur at the interface between acorn barnacles (Balanus Amphitrite) and the underlying substratum during the barnacle growth cycle. Barnacles secrete a lipidaceous substance around the outside of their shell, prior to expansion that dislodges microorganisms and biofilms to present a cleaned surface. During molting, epithelia cells build a new interfacial cuticular layer, which becomes autofluorescent as it is sclerotized, above the existing cuticle whose degradation coincides with the exuviation of the main body's cuticle. Rather than being directly secreted onto the substrate, nanostructured barnacle cement accumulates in the space in between the new and old cuticle. As the barnacle expands, the cuticular layers are stretched and pulled around the outside of the side plate. The strain causes the old cuticle to randomly tear, allowing the new cuticle to deposit cement into the interface as it is dragged across the substrate. Furthermore, antibody staining allowed us to spatially and temporally identify where different cement proteins are presenet. These results illustrate that the methodologies we have developed to break down and analyze barnacle cement collection are yielding a more accurate representation of the proteins at the buried interface, and providing insight on their roles which will lead to improved strategies to both combat and mimic barnacle adhesives.