Abstract
For growing, crustaceans have to molt cyclically because of the presence of a rigid exoskeleton. Most of the crustaceans harden their cuticle not only by sclerotization, like all the arthropods, but also by calcification. All the physiology of crustaceans, including the calcification process, is then linked to molting cycles. This means for these animals to find regularly a source of calcium ions quickly available just after ecdysis. The sources of calcium used are diverse, ranging from the environment where the animals live to endogenous calcium deposits cyclically elaborated by some of them. As a result, crustaceans are submitted to an important and energetically demanding calcium turnover throughout their life. The mineralization process occurs by precipitation of calcium carbonate within an organic matrix network of chitin-proteins fibers. Both crystalline and stabilized amorphous polymorphs of calcium carbonate are found in crustacean biominerals. Furthermore, Crustacea is the only phylum of animals able to elaborate and resorb periodically calcified structures. Notably for these two previous reasons, crustaceans are more and more extensively studied and considered as models of choice in the biomineralization research area.
Highlights
Biomineralization corresponds to the process of mineralized structures formation by living organisms
If amorphous calcium carbonate has been demonstrated to be transitorily present as precursor of a crystalline polymorph, to decapods, stabilized amorphous polymorph of calcium carbonate (ACC) and in a lesser extent ACP have been evidenced as components of isopod cuticle
The knowledge of the physical and chemical features of the matrix components is a prerequisite to understand, at the molecular level, how a biomineralization is elaborated, how the matrix molecules are involved in the nucleation and precipitation processes, how they influence the determinism of the polymorph obtained, and how a demineralizing process may occur
Summary
Biomineralization corresponds to the process of mineralized structures formation by living organisms. Keywords ACC, amorphous calcium carbonate, biomineralization, calcification, calcium storage, cuticle, organic matrix
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