SPP 1117: Principles of Biomineralization

生物矿化是生物体形成无机固体的过程，这是一种将生物世界与所谓的死无机固体结合在一起的最迷人的现象。生物矿物具有多种生物功能，其依赖于生物有机-无机复合物在从埃到厘米尺度的几个长度尺度上的分级结构。这种复杂材料的合成超出了今天的合成固态化学的范围，在生物启发材料合成程序成功开发之前，必须详细了解生物矿化的自然现象。在这个意义上，优先方案的目的是通过生物化学和生物学以及无机和分析化学及相关领域的研究小组的合作，阐明生物矿化的基本过程，方案内的研究是针对碳酸钙、二氧化硅和磷灰石三类物质进行的。重要的问题涉及分子生物化学基质的结构及其遗传控制的形成，无机前体物质的生物运输，无机固体在生物基质上的成核，无机固体的生物控制生长，生物控制的等级有序聚集体的形成，以及生物有机体的结构和功能，无机复合材料关于生物矿物功能的藻类生物学研究不属于本方案的范围，因为这些研究与无机固体的等级结构及其形成过程没有明确的关系。在类似的意义上，合成模型系统，试图模仿特殊方面的生物矿化过程离体必须严格遵守的生物系统，必须考虑这些过程中已经提供的信息。

The term biomineralization characterizes the formation of inorganic solids by living organisms, a most fascinating phenomenon joining together the living world with the realm of allegedly dead inorganic solids. Biominerals have a variety of biological functions, which rely on a hierarchical structuring of bioorganic-inorganic composites on several length scales from the Angstrom to the cm scale. The synthesis of such complex materials is out of scope for today¿s synthetic solid-state chemistry, and before bio-inspired materialssynthesis procedures can be developed successfully, the natural phenomenon of biomineralization has to be understood in detail. In this sense, the aim of the priority programme is the elucidation of the basic processes of biomineralization through the cooperative work of research groups working in Biochemistry and Biology as well as in Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry and associated fields.The research within the programme is performed on the three substance classes calcium carbonate, silicon dioxide and apatite. Important problems are related to the structure of the molecular biochemical matrix and to its genetically controlled formation, to the biological transport of inorganic precursor species, to the nucleation of inorganic solids on biological matrices, to the biologically controlled growth of inorganic solids, to the biologicallycontrolled formation of hierarchically ordered aggregates as well as to the structure and the functions of the bioorganic-inorganic composite material. Purely biological studies with regard to the function of biominerals are not within the scope of the programme, when they do not show clear relations to the hierarchical structures of the inorganic solids and their formation processes. In a similar sense, synthetic model systems which try to imitate special aspectsof biomineralization processes ex vivo have to adhere strictly to the biological systems and must consider the information which is already available on these processes.