High ordered biomineralization induced by carbon nanoparticles in the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus

Nanotechnology PAPER High ordered biomineralization induced by carbon nanoparticles in the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus Daniela Manno1,2, Elisabetta Carata2, Bernadetta A Tenuzzo2, Elisa Panzarini2, Alessandro Buccolieri1,2, Emanuela Filippo1,3, Marco Rossi4, Antonio Serra1,3 and Luciana Dini2 Published 19 November 2012 • © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd Nanotechnology, Volume 23, Number 49 Citation Daniela Manno et al 2012 Nanotechnology 23 495104 DOI 10.1088/0957-4484/23/49/495104 DownloadArticle PDF Figures References Download PDF 623 Total downloads 1414 total citations on Dimensions. Submit to this Journal Turn on MathJax Get permission to re-use this article Share this article Share this content via email Share on Facebook (opens new window) Share on Twitter (opens new window) Share on Mendeley (opens new window) Article and author information Abstract A surprising and unexpected biomineralization process was observed during toxicological assessment of carbon nanoparticles on Paracentrotus lividus (sea urchin) pluteus larvae. The larvae activate a process of defense against external material, by incorporating the nanoparticles into microstructures of aragonite similarly to pearl oysters. Aiming at a better understanding of this phenomenon, the larvae were exposed to increasing concentrations of carbon nanoparticles and the biomineralization products were analyzed by electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. In order to evaluate the possible influence of Sp-CyP-1 expression on this biomineralization process by larvae, analyses of gene expression (Sp-CyP-1) and calcein labeling were performed. Overall, we report experimental evidence about the capability of carbon nanoparticles to induce an increment of Sp-CyP-1 expression with the consequent activation of a biomineralization process leading to the production of a new pearl-like biomaterial never previously observed in sea urchins.