ArticleNature communications2017
Mechanoresponsive lipid-protein nanoglobules facilitate reversible fibre formation in velvet worm slime.
Article in Nature communications, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Conserved leucine-rich repeat proteins in the adhesive projectile slime of velvet worms.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Stiffness-tunable velvet worm-inspired soft adhesive robot.Science advances · 2024Article
- Proton conductivity of the protein-based velvet worm slime.iScience · 2024Article
- Fluid Ejections in Nature.Annual review of chemical and biomolecular engineering · 2024Review
- Fluid ejections in nature.ArXiv · 2024Article
- Peculiar Phosphonate Modifications of Velvet Worm Slime Revealed by Advanced Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Mass Spectrometry.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2023Article
- Protein-Based Biological Materials: Molecular Design and Artificial Production.Chemical reviews · 2023Review
- Sizing Up the Onychophoran Genome: Repeats, Introns, and Gene Family Expansion Contribute to Genome Gigantism in Epiperipatus broadwayi.Genome biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Encapsulated salts in velvet worm slime drive its hardening.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Complete Sequences of the Velvet Worm Slime Proteins Reveal that Slime Formation is Enabled by Disulfide Bonds and Intrinsically Disordered Regions.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2022Article
- Mistletoe viscin: a hygro- and mechano-responsive cellulose-based adhesive for diverse material applications.PNAS nexus · 2022Article
- Bio-based and bio-inspired adhesives from animals and plants for biomedical applications.Materials today. Bio · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Velvet worms eject a fluid capture slime that can be mechanically drawn into stiff biopolymeric fibres. Remarkably, these fibres can be dissolved by extended exposure to water, and new regenerated fibres can be drawn from the dissolved fibre solution-indicating a fully recyclable process. Here, we perform a multiscale structural and compositional investigation of this reversible fabrication process with the velvet worm Euperipatoides rowelli, revealing that biopolymeric fibre assembly is facilitated via mono-disperse lipid-protein nanoglobules. Shear forces cause nanoglobules to self-assemble into nano- and microfibrils, which can be drawn into macroscopic fibres with a protein-enriched core and lipid-rich coating. Fibre dissolution in water leads to re-formation of nanoglobules, suggesting that this dynamic supramolecular assembly of mechanoresponsive protein-building blocks is mediated by reversible non-covalent interactions. These findings offer important mechanistic insights into the role of mechanochemical processes in bio-fibre formation, providing potential avenues for sustainable material fabrication processes.Velvet worms expel a fluid slime that, under shear force, forms stiff fibres that can be dissolved and then regenerated. Here, the authors reveal that the recyclability of these biopolymers relies on mechanoresponsive lipid-protein nanoglobules in the slime that reversibly self-assemble into fibrils.
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