Silicon biomineralisation: towards mimicking biogenic silica formation in diatoms.

Abstract

Silica is by far the most abundant compound in the earth¡¯s crust. It serves various functions in nature: organisms ranging from lower eukaryotes to plants use it as one of the biominerals that provide support, protection, strength, or tools in various functions. Biogenic silica is the least studied of the biominerals. The best-studied ones (Hunter 1996) are composed of calcium (apatite, enamel, calcite); these are present in the bone tissue and teeth of mammals and in the shells of shellfish. In contrast to calcium minerals, relatively little is known about the formation of biogenic silica. The most likely function of biogenic silica in unicellular organisms seems to be giving strength to the living cell; good examples from the aquatic environment are siliceous (exo)skeletons or cell casings of the microalgal groups of diatoms (Fig.1) and silicoflagellates, and of Radiolaria (Simpson and Volcani 1981; Pickett-Heaps et al. 1990; Round et al. 1990).KeywordsMesoporous SilicaBiogenic SilicaDiatom FrustuleSilica PrecursorSolid SilicaThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.