Molecular determinants of calcitic biomineralization

方解石生物矿化的可重复性导致鸟类蛋壳精确定义的结构特征，这继续引起生物科学家的兴趣和社会的关注。鸡蛋壳制造中的缺陷是人类健康和食品安全问题。在加拿大，每年约有1万例沙门氏菌中毒是由于蛋壳破裂造成的。鸟类蛋壳是已知最快的钙化过程之一;在鸡蛋的日常形成过程中，6克矿物质在不到20小时内沉积在蛋壳膜表面。在过去的15年里，我的NSERC研究计划已经确定了蛋壳基质中调节碳酸钙晶体成核和生长的蛋白质成分。尽管取得了这些进展，但调节钙化的初始和终末阶段的机制和分子还没有很好地理解。 此外，无定形碳酸钙（ACC）越来越多地被认为是生物钙化中方解石的非结晶前体，但对其在蛋壳矿化中的可能作用仍知之甚少。

The reproducible nature of calcitic biomineralization that results in the precisely defined structural features of the avian eggshell continues to intrigue biological scientists and to concern society. Flaws in chicken eggshell fabrication are a human health and food safety issue. In Canada, about 10,000 annual cases of salmonella poisoning are due to contamination of cracked eggshells. The avian eggshell is one of the fastest calcifying processes known; 6 g of mineral is deposited upon the surface of the eggshell membranes in less than 20 hr during the daily formation of the chicken egg. My NSERC research program during past 15 years has identified protein components of the eggshell matrix that modulate calcium carbonate crystal nucleation and growth. In spite of this progress, the mechanism and molecules that regulate the initial and terminal phases of calcification are not well understood. Moreover, amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) is increasingly recognized as a non-crystalline precursor to calcite in biological calcification, but there is still very little known about its possible role in eggshell mineralization.