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A unique book presenting the range of silica structures formed by diatoms, theories and hypotheses of how they are made, and applications to nanotechnology by use or imitation of diatom morphogenesis.
There are up to 200,000 species of diatoms, each species of these algal cells bearing an ornate, amorphous silica glass shell. The silica is structured at 7 orders of magnitude size range and is thus the most complex multiscalar solid structure known. Recent research is beginning to unravel how a single cell marshals chemical, physical, biochemical, genetic, and cytoskeletal processes to produce these single-cell marvels. The field of diatom nanotechnology is advancing as this understanding matures.
Diatoms have been actively studied over the recent 10-20 years with various modern equipment, experimental and computer simulation approaches, including molecular biology, fluorescence-based methods, electron, confocal, and AFM microscopy. This has resulted in a huge amount of information but the key stages of their silica morphogenesis are still not clear. This is the time to reconsider and consolidate the work performed so far and to understand how we can go ahead.
The main objective of Diatom Morphogenesis is to describe the actual situation in the science of diatom morphogenesis, to specify the most important unresolved questions, and to present the corresponding hypotheses. The following areas are discussed:
- A tutorial chapter, with a glossary for newcomers to the field, who are often from outside of biology, let alone phycology;
- Diatom Morphogenesis: general issues, including symmetry and size issues;
- Diatom Morphogenesis: simulation, including analytical and numerical methods for description of the diatom valve shape and pore structure;
- Diatom Morphogenesis: physiology, biochemistry, and applications, including the relationship between taxonomy and physiology, biosilicification hypotheses, and ideas about applications of diatoms.
Preface xv
Part 1: General Issues 1
1. Introduction for a Tutorial on Diatom Morphology 3 / Kalina Manoylov and Mohamed Ghobara
2. The Uncanny Symmetry of Some Diatoms and Not of Others: A Multi-Scale Morphological Characteristic and a Puzzle for Morphogenesis 19 / Janice L. Pappas, Mary Ann Tiffany and Richard Gordon
3. On the Size Sequence of Diatoms in Clonal Chains 69 / Thomas Harbich
4. Valve Morphogenesis in Amphitetras antediluviana Ehrenburg 93 / Mary A. Tiffany and Bonnie L. Hurwitz
Part 2: Simulation 105
5. Geometric Models of Concentric and Spiral Areola Patterns of Centric Diatoms 107 / Anton M. Lyakh
6. Diatom Pore Arrays’ Periodicities and Symmetries in the Euclidean Plane: Nature Between Perfection and Imperfection 117 / Mohamed M. Ghobara, Mary Ann Tiffany, Richard Gordon and Louisa Reissig
7. Quantified Ensemble 3D Surface Features Modeled as a Window on Centric Diatom Valve Morphogenesis 159 / Janice L. Pappas
8. Buckling: A Geometric and Biophysical Multiscale Feature of Centric Diatom Valve Morphogenesis 195 / Janice L. Pappas and Richard Gordon
9. Are Mantle Profiles of Circular Centric Diatoms a Measure of Buckling Forces During Valve Morphogenesis? 231 / Janice L. Pappas and Richard Gordon
Part 3: Physiology, Biochemistry and Applications 251
10. The Effect of the Silica Cell Wall on Diatom Transport and Metabolism 253 / Mark Hildebrand
11. Diatom Plasticity: Trends, Issues, and Applications on Modern and Classical Taxonomy, Eco‑Evolutionary Dynamics, and Climate Change 261 / Lawrence Victor D. Vitug
12. Frustule Photonics and Light Harvesting Strategies in Diatoms 269 / Johannes W. Goessling, Yanyan Su, Michael Kühl and Marianne Ellegaard
13. Steps of Silicic Acid Transformation to Siliceous Frustules: Main Hypotheses and Discoveries 301 / Vadim V. Annenkov, Elena N. Danilovtseva and Richard Gordon
14. The Effects of Cytoskeletal Inhibitors on Diatom Valve Morphogenesis 349 / Yekaterina D. Bedoshvili and Yelena V. Likhoshway
15. Modeling Silicon Pools in Diatoms Using the Chemistry Toolbox 365 / Argyro Spinthaki and Konstantinos D. Demadis
16. The Mesopores of Raphid Pennate Diatoms: Toward Natural Controllable Anisotropic Mesoporous Silica Microparticles 383 / Mohamed M. Ghobara, Richard Gordon and Louisa Reissig
Acknowledgment 399
References 399
Glossary 408
Index 411
Professor Vadim V. Annenkov earned his PhD from Irkutsk Institute of Organic Chemistry Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences in 1989 and Doctor of Science (Doctor Habilitation) in Polymer Chemistry from Irkutsk State University in 2002. He has worked in the Limnological Institute (Siberian Branch of RAS) since 2004. He is the author of about 150 scientific papers, 18 patents, 120 abstracts of conferences.
Professor J. Seckbach is a retired senior academician at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. He earned his PhD from the University of Chicago and did a post-doctorate in the Division of Biology at Caltech, in Pasadena, CA. He served at Louisiana State University (LSU), Baton Rouge, LA, USA, as the first selected Chair for the Louisiana Sea Grant and Technology transfer. Professor Joseph Seckbach has edited over 40 scientific books and authored about 140 scientific articles.
Richard Gordon’s involvement with diatoms goes back to 1970 with his capillarity model for their gliding motility, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. He later worked on a diffusion-limited aggregation model for diatom morphogenesis, which led to the first paper ever published on diatom nanotechnology in 1988. He organized the first workshop on diatom nanotech in 2003. His other research is on computed tomography algorithms, HIV/AIDS prevention, and embryogenesis.
