Abstract
Salamanders have developed a wide variety of antipredator mechanisms, including tail autotomy, colour patterns, and noxious skin secretions. As an addition to these tactics, the red-legged salamander (Plethodon shermani) uses adhesive secretions as part of its defensive strategy. The high bonding strength, the fast-curing nature, and the composition of the biobased materials makes salamander adhesives interesting for practical applications in the medical sector. To understand the adhesive secretions of P. shermani, its components were chemically analysed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), amino acid analysis, and spectroscopy (ATR-IR, Raman). In addition, proteins were separated by gel-electrophoresis and selected spots were characterised by peptide mass fingerprinting. The salamander secretion contains a high amount of water and predominantly proteins (around 77% in the dry stage). The gel-electrophoresis and peptide mass fingerprint analyses revealed a de novo set of peptides/proteins, largely with a pI between 5.0 and 8.0 and a molecular mass distribution between 10 and 170 kDa. Only low homologies with other proteins present in known databases could be identified. The results indicate that the secretions of the salamander Plethodon clearly differ chemically from those shown for other glue-producing terrestrial or marine species and thus represent a unique glue system.
Highlights
To date, research on adhesives in nature has been primarily carried out on marine animals[1, 2]
The red–legged salamander Plethodon shermani is, besides Ambystoma spp., Batrachoseps spp. and Bolitoglossa spp., one of the few North American salamander species which secretes adhesive as an antipredator strategy[15, 19, 20]
The composition of the skin secretions in Plethodon shermani has been previously studied[22, 23] on a histochemical level, we still know little about the composition of the adhesive
Summary
Research on adhesives in nature has been primarily carried out on marine animals[1, 2]. Graham et al.[4] indicate that the Notaden glue functions rather as a pressure-sensitive adhesive than through chemical mechanism such as that found in mussels and barnacles[7, 8]. This high bonding strength of the Notaden glue has already caused great interest for practical applications in the industrial[3, 9] and medical sectors[10, 11]. The red–legged salamander Plethodon shermani is, besides Ambystoma spp., Batrachoseps spp. and Bolitoglossa spp., one of the few North American salamander species which secretes adhesive as an antipredator strategy[15, 19, 20]. We aim to survey for the first time the secretions of the gluing species Plethodon shermani and to characterize the adhesive secretion in greater detail
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