Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34337606›Full record

ArticleJACS Au2021

Phase-Field Modeling of Biomineralization in Mollusks and Corals: Microstructure vs Formation Mechanism.

László Gránásy, László Rátkai, Gyula I Tóth, Pupa U P A Gilbert, Igor Zlotnikov, Tamás Pusztai

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in JACS Au, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
0.1field-weighted citation impact, top 58% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Classical View on Nonclassical Crystal Growth in a Biological Setting.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025
    Review
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. The mesoscale order of nacreous pearls.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.

László GránásyLaboratory of Advanced Structural Studies, Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, P.O. Box 49, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5825-7632
László RátkaiLaboratory of Advanced Structural Studies, Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, P.O. Box 49, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7644-253X
Gyula I TóthDepartment of Mathematical Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, U.K.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8446-9572
Pupa U P A GilbertDepartments of Physics, Chemistry, Geoscience, Materials Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0139-2099
Igor ZlotnikovB CUBE-Center for Molecular Bioengineering, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2388-9028
Tamás PusztaiLaboratory of Advanced Structural Studies, Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, P.O. Box 49, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1281-2933
Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics · HULoughborough University · GBTechnische Universität Dresden · DEUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

While biological crystallization processes have been studied on the microscale extensively, there is a general lack of models addressing the mesoscale aspects of such phenomena. In this work, we investigate whether the phase-field theory developed in materials' science for describing complex polycrystalline structures on the mesoscale can be meaningfully adapted to model crystallization in biological systems. We demonstrate the abilities of the phase-field technique by modeling a range of microstructures observed in mollusk shells and coral skeletons, including granular, prismatic, sheet/columnar nacre, and sprinkled spherulitic structures. We also compare two possible micromechanisms of calcification: the classical route, via ion-by-ion addition from a fluid state, and a nonclassical route, crystallization of an amorphous precursor deposited at the solidification front. We show that with an appropriate choice of the model parameters, microstructures similar to those found in biomineralized systems can be obtained along both routes, though the time-scale of the nonclassical route appears to be more realistic. The resemblance of the simulated and natural biominerals suggests that, underneath the immense biological complexity observed in living organisms, the underlying design principles for biological structures may be understood with simple math and simulated by phase-field theory.

Identifiers

PMID34337606
PMCPMC8317440
OpenAlexW3109919836

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.