Abstract
Footpads allow insects to walk on smooth surfaces. Specifically, liquid secretions on the footpad mediate adhesiveness through Van der Waals, Coulomb, and attractive capillary forces. Although the morphology and function of the footpad are well defined, the mechanism underlying their formation remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate that footpad hair in Drosophila is formed by the elongation of the hair cells and assembly of actin filaments. Knockdown of Actin5C caused a malformation of the hair structure, resulting in reduced ability to adhere to smooth substrates. We determined that functional footpads are created when hair cells form effective frameworks with actin filament bundles, thereby shaping the hair tip and facilitating cuticular deposition. We adapted this mechanism of microstructure formation to design a new artificial adhesive device—a spatula-like fiber-framed adhesive device supported by nylon fibers with a gel material at the tip. This simple self-assembly mechanism facilitates the energy-efficient production of low-cost adhesion devices.
Highlights
Footpads allow insects to walk on smooth surfaces
We propose a new fiber-framed adhesive device with a spatula-like structure supported by nylon fibers with gel materials at the tip
Cross-sectional images obtained using a transmission electron microscope (TEM) have shown that each hair is a flat tube composed of a cuticle (Fig. 1c)
Summary
Footpads allow insects to walk on smooth surfaces. liquid secretions on the footpad mediate adhesiveness through Van der Waals, Coulomb, and attractive capillary forces. We determined that functional footpads are created when hair cells form effective frameworks with actin filament bundles, thereby shaping the hair tip and facilitating cuticular deposition We adapted this mechanism of microstructure formation to design a new artificial adhesive device—a spatula-like fiber-framed adhesive device supported by nylon fibers with a gel material at the tip. The formation of the functional footpad involves hair cell elongation, supported by a framework of actin filament bundles that provides a specific shape and facilitates cuticular deposition. This mechanism of formation of the microstructures of footpad hair inspired us to design a new adhesive device. This simple procedure, using a self-assembly mechanism, enables us to reduce the cost of raw materials and energy required to produce useful adhesion devices
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