Templated hierarchical mineralization
Phosvitin self-assembles into amyloid-like aggregates that template both mesoscale spherule formation and intrafibrillar mineralization, mimicking the natural biomineralization hierarchy from the mesoscale down to the nanoscale.
Zhang, Chunyan · Zhang, Yangyang · Yuan, Jian · Wang, Zhiyong · Wu, Mengjie · Mengqi, Zhu · Chen, Qianming
Nature Communications 2025
Phosvitin undergoes a conformational transition and self-assembles into mineral-dense amyloid-like aggregates at physiological concentrations
These aggregates serve as a template to form well-defined mesoscale spherical mineralized structures within collagen
On the nanoscale, the binding facilitates mineral precursor release and diffusion into fibrils for intrafibrillar mineralization