Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 1997 Mar 22;264(1380):461–465. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1997.0066

Amorphous calcium carbonate transforms into calcite during sea urchin larval spicule growth

E Beniash, J Aizenberg, L Addadi, S Weiner
PMCID: PMC1688267

Abstract

Sea urchin larvae form an endoskeleton composed of a pair of spicules. For more than a century it has been stated that each spicule comprises a single crystal of the CaCO3 mineral, calcite. We show that an additional mineral phase, amorphous calcium carbonate, is present in the sea urchin larval spicule, and that this inherently unstable mineral transforms into calcite with time. This observation significantly changes our concepts of mineral formation in this well-studied organism.

Keywords: Biomineralization Sea Urchin Embryo Spicules Amorphous Caco 3 Calcite

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (312.0 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Armstrong N., McClay D. R. Skeletal pattern is specified autonomously by the primary mesenchyme cells in sea urchin embryos. Dev Biol. 1994 Apr;162(2):329–338. doi: 10.1006/dbio.1994.1090. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Berman A., Hanson J., Leiserowitz L., Koetzle T. F., Weiner S., Addadi L. Biological control of crystal texture: a widespread strategy for adapting crystal properties to function. Science. 1993 Feb 5;259(5096):776–779. doi: 10.1126/science.259.5096.776. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cameron R. A., Davidson E. H. Cell type specification during sea urchin development. Trends Genet. 1991 Jul;7(7):212–218. doi: 10.1016/0168-9525(91)90367-y. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Davidson E. H. Later embryogenesis: regulatory circuitry in morphogenetic fields. Development. 1993 Jul;118(3):665–690. doi: 10.1242/dev.118.3.665. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Decker G. L., Lennarz W. J. Skeletogenesis in the sea urchin embryo. Development. 1988 Jun;103(2):231–247. doi: 10.1242/dev.103.2.231. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Decker G. L., Morrill J. B., Lennarz W. J. Characterization of sea urchin primary mesenchyme cells and spicules during biomineralization in vitro. Development. 1987 Oct;101(2):297–312. doi: 10.1242/dev.101.2.297. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Ettensohn C. A., Malinda K. M. Size regulation and morphogenesis: a cellular analysis of skeletogenesis in the sea urchin embryo. Development. 1993 Sep;119(1):155–167. doi: 10.1242/dev.119.1.155. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Livingston B. T., Wilt F. H. Determination of cell fate in sea urchin embryos. Bioessays. 1990 Mar;12(3):115–119. doi: 10.1002/bies.950120304. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Lowenstam H. A., Weiner S. Transformation of amorphous calcium phosphate to crystalline dahillite in the radular teeth of chitons. Science. 1985 Jan 4;227(4682):51–53. doi: 10.1126/science.227.4682.51. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. WOLPERT L., GUSTAFSON T. Studies on the cellular basis of morphogenesis of the sea urchin embryo. Development of the skeletal pattern. Exp Cell Res. 1961 Nov;25:311–325. doi: 10.1016/0014-4827(61)90282-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences are provided here courtesy of The Royal Society

RESOURCES