Chemists Crack Secrets of Mussels' Super Glue

Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers from Purdue University working under an award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) have discovered that common blue mussels are using iron found in seawater to create their own super glue. "In addition to using the knowledge to develop safer alternatives for surgical and household glues, the researchers are looking at how to combat the glue to prevent damage to shipping vessels and the accidental transport of invasive species, such as the zebra mussel that has ravaged the midwestern United States." This overview contains more details and references about this discovery. You'll also find an image of mussel glue at a magnification of 25,000X and one of a mussel adhering to a sheet of Teflon."

Too bad for the mussels

[Dilbert_]

Superglue or not, here in Belgium and The Netherlands millions of mussels are eaten every year ;-)

Why ?

[Krapangor]

If you reduce the water amount in saliva of the mongolian veld goat then you get stuff with nearly the same properties. The goats need this to be able to eat the cacti in the desert.
However this is known to some time now and nobody seems to care or even to use it.

Re:synthesis is a sticky situation

[medication]

unless of course we isolate the gene(s) responsible for the creation of the protein/metal glue... then it's a matter of recobinate DNA and our helpful little friends bacteria..

Re:More permanence may not be best

[1u3hr]

You know, with this development, and all the recent talk about gecko super-tape being developed... it makes me feel a little uncomfortable. We're developing products that make structures, installations etc. more and more permanent.

If we used a glue that was similar to an existing organic substance it most likely would be more recyclable than the current acrylics and cyanoacrilates and such; hopefully production would produce less toxic waste, though I doubt they'll be milkng mussels for it. Conversely, making more durable products reduces obsolescence so ideally less is discarded.

Fe is not part of final glue

[manganese4]

From the research page http://www.chem.purdue.edu/wilker/adhesives.htm [purdue.edu] It would appear the the iron is only involved in stabilizing the transition state responsible for crosslinking the Dopaquinone monomers. The final glue appears to be iron free. Does anyone have a better mechanism referernce?

Re:Zebra mussel info page

[Lord Kano]

Is there some reason why we can't turn lemons into lemonade and eat the Zebra mussels?

I've been wondering about this since I first heard about the problem with them. Are they toxic to humans? Is there not enough meat inside to make them worth the effort? Do they taste different than other mussels?

In short, why ain't we eating them?

LK

Re:so what?

[fitten]

Cross reference this with a lot of the discussion of nanotechnology recently... for instance the discussion of the two heads of different camps discussion recently on slashdot (not taking the time to find the link). Anyway, one of the leading guys says that nanotechnology will be built using organics, the other says by mechanics and each say the other is wrong. Anyway, understanding how and why "transition metals are essential to the formation of a non crystalline biological material" may help in the building of nanotechnology science.