ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2015
Glassin, a histidine-rich protein from the siliceous skeletal system of the marine sponge Euplectella, directs silica polycondensation.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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23 citing papers in PubMed, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- Co-option of Lysosomal Machinery for Sponge Biosilicification.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Innovations in Silicon Transport Shaped the Rise of Biosilicification and Skeletal Evolution in Sponges.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Independent origins of spicules reconcile paleontological and molecular evidence of sponge evolutionary history.Science advances · 2026Article
- Data-driven inverse design of multifunctional bicontinuous multiscale structures.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The evaluation of biogenic silica in brackish and freshwater strains reveals links between phylogeny and silica accumulation in picocyanobacteria.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Exploiting Silica-Binding and Silica-Forming Proteins as Versatile Tools for One-Step Enzyme Immobilization on Siliceous Materials.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Silica-Biomacromolecule Interactions: Toward a Mechanistic Understanding of Silicification.Biomacromolecules · 2025Review
- Nanoengineered Silica-Based Biomaterials for Regenerative Medicine.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Silica-associated proteins from hexactinellid sponges support an alternative evolutionary scenario for biomineralization in Porifera.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Untapped Potential of Deep Eutectic Solvents for the Synthesis of Bioinspired Inorganic-Organic Materials.Chemistry of materials : a publication of the American Chemical Society · 2023Review
- An evolutionarily nascent architecture underlying the formation and emergence of biomolecular condensates.Cell reports · 2023Article
- The compact genome of the sponge Oopsacas minuta (Hexactinellida) is lacking key metazoan core genes.BMC biology · 2023Article
- Honeycomb Biosilica in Sponges: From Understanding Principles of Unique Hierarchical Organization to Assessing Biomimetic Potential.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The genome of the reef-building glass spongeRoyal Society open science · 2023Article
- Article
- Arrested in Glass: Actin within Sophisticated Architectures of Biosilica in Sponges.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2022Article
- Engineering Bacillus subtilis for the formation of a durable living biocomposite material.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Calcite Nanotuned Chitinous Skeletons of GiantInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
- Cellulose intrafibrillar mineralization of biological silica in a rice plant.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Identification of the Domains Involved in Promotion of Silica Formation in Glassin, a Protein Occluded in Hexactinellid Sponge Biosilica, for Development of a Tag for Purification and Immobilization of Recombinant Proteins.Marine biotechnology (New York, N.Y.) · 2020Article
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6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
The hexactinellids are a diverse group of predominantly deep sea sponges that synthesize elaborate fibrous skeletal systems of amorphous hydrated silica. As a representative example, members of the genus Euplectella have proved to be useful model systems for investigating structure-function relationships in these hierarchically ordered siliceous network-like composites. Despite recent advances in understanding the mechanistic origins of damage tolerance in these complex skeletal systems, the details of their synthesis have remained largely unexplored. Here, we describe a previously unidentified protein, named "glassin," the main constituent in the water-soluble fraction of the demineralized skeletal elements of Euplectella. When combined with silicic acid solutions, glassin rapidly accelerates silica polycondensation over a pH range of 6-8. Glassin is characterized by high histidine content, and cDNA sequence analysis reveals that glassin shares no significant similarity with any other known proteins. The deduced amino acid sequence reveals that glassin consists of two similar histidine-rich domains and a connecting domain. Each of the histidine-rich domains is composed of three segments: an amino-terminal histidine and aspartic acid-rich sequence, a proline-rich sequence in the middle, and a histidine and threonine-rich sequence at the carboxyl terminus. Histidine always forms HX or HHX repeats, in which most of X positions are occupied by glycine, aspartic acid, or threonine. Recombinant glassin reproduces the silica precipitation activity observed in the native proteins. The highly modular composition of glassin, composed of imidazole, acidic, and hydroxyl residues, favors silica polycondensation and provides insights into the molecular mechanisms of skeletal formation in hexactinellid sponges.
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