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Neutral glycans from sandfish skin can reduce friction of polymers

The lizard Scincus scincus, also known as sandfish, can move through aeolian desert sand in a swimming-like manner. A prerequisite for this ability is a special integument, i.e. scales with a very low friction for sand and a high abrasion resistance. Glycans in the scales are causally related to the...

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Autores principales: Vihar, Boštjan, Hanisch, Franz Georg, Baumgartner, Werner
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4843684/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27030038
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2016.0103
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author Vihar, Boštjan
Hanisch, Franz Georg
Baumgartner, Werner
author_facet Vihar, Boštjan
Hanisch, Franz Georg
Baumgartner, Werner
author_sort Vihar, Boštjan
collection PubMed
description The lizard Scincus scincus, also known as sandfish, can move through aeolian desert sand in a swimming-like manner. A prerequisite for this ability is a special integument, i.e. scales with a very low friction for sand and a high abrasion resistance. Glycans in the scales are causally related to the low friction. Here, we analysed the glycans and found that neutral glycans with five to nine mannose residues are important. If these glycans were covalently bound to acrylic polymers like poly(methyl methacrylate) or acrylic car coatings at a density of approximately one molecule per 4 nm², friction for and adhesion of sand particles could be reduced to levels close to those observed with sandfish scales. This was also found true, if the glycans were isolated from sources other than sandfish scales like plants such as almonds or mistletoe. We speculate that these neutral glycans act as low density spacers separating sand particles from the dense scales thereby reducing van der Waals forces.
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spelling pubmed-48436842016-04-26 Neutral glycans from sandfish skin can reduce friction of polymers Vihar, Boštjan Hanisch, Franz Georg Baumgartner, Werner J R Soc Interface Life Sciences–Chemistry interface The lizard Scincus scincus, also known as sandfish, can move through aeolian desert sand in a swimming-like manner. A prerequisite for this ability is a special integument, i.e. scales with a very low friction for sand and a high abrasion resistance. Glycans in the scales are causally related to the low friction. Here, we analysed the glycans and found that neutral glycans with five to nine mannose residues are important. If these glycans were covalently bound to acrylic polymers like poly(methyl methacrylate) or acrylic car coatings at a density of approximately one molecule per 4 nm², friction for and adhesion of sand particles could be reduced to levels close to those observed with sandfish scales. This was also found true, if the glycans were isolated from sources other than sandfish scales like plants such as almonds or mistletoe. We speculate that these neutral glycans act as low density spacers separating sand particles from the dense scales thereby reducing van der Waals forces. The Royal Society 2016-03 /pmc/articles/PMC4843684/ /pubmed/27030038 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2016.0103 Text en © 2016 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Life Sciences–Chemistry interface
Vihar, Boštjan
Hanisch, Franz Georg
Baumgartner, Werner
Neutral glycans from sandfish skin can reduce friction of polymers
title Neutral glycans from sandfish skin can reduce friction of polymers
title_full Neutral glycans from sandfish skin can reduce friction of polymers
title_fullStr Neutral glycans from sandfish skin can reduce friction of polymers
title_full_unstemmed Neutral glycans from sandfish skin can reduce friction of polymers
title_short Neutral glycans from sandfish skin can reduce friction of polymers
title_sort neutral glycans from sandfish skin can reduce friction of polymers
topic Life Sciences–Chemistry interface
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4843684/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27030038
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2016.0103
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