Attaching organic fibers to mineral: The case of the avian eggshell

Attaching organic fibers to mineral: The case of the avian eggshell

Blog Article

Summary: Bird remtavares.com eggs possess a mineralized eggshell with a soft underlying fibrous membrane.These dissimilar material layers successfully evolved a structural attachment to each other as a conserved avian reproduction strategy essential to avian embryonic development, growth, and hatching of the chick.To understand how organic membrane fibers attach to shell mineral (calcite), 3D multiscale imaging including X-ray and electron tomography coupled with deep learning-based feature segmentation was used to show how membrane fibers are organized and anchored into shell mineral.Whole fibers embed into mineral across operation igloo white the microscale, while fine mineral projections (granules/spikes) insert into fiber surfaces at the nanoscale, all of which provides considerable surface area and multiscale anchorage at the organic-inorganic interface between the fibrous membrane and the shell.Such a reciprocal anchorage system occurring at two different length scales between organic fibers and inorganic mineral provides a secure attachment mechanism for avian eggshell integrity across two dissimilar materials.