Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Contributors
- Elastomeric Proteins
- 1 Functions of Elastomeric Proteins in Animals
- 2 Elastic Proteins: Biological Roles and Mechanical Properties
- 3 Elastin as a Self-Assembling Biomaterial
- 4 Ideal Protein Elasticity: The Elastin Models
- 5 Fibrillin: From Microfibril Assembly to Biomechanical Function
- 6 Spinning an Elastic Ribbon of Spider Silk
- 7 Sequences, Structures, and Properties of Spider Silks
- 8 The Nature of Some Spiders' Silks
- 9 Collagen: Hierarchical Structure and Viscoelastic Properties of Tendon
- 10 Collagens with Elastin- and Silk-like Domains
- 11 Conformational Compliance of Spectrins in Membrane Deformation, Morphogenesis, and Signalling
- 12 Giant Protein Titin: Structural and Functional Aspects
- 13 Structure and Function of Resilin
- 14 Gluten, the Elastomeric Protein of Wheat Seeds
- 15 Biological Liquid Crystal Elastomers
- 16 Restraining Cross-Links in Elastomeric Proteins
- 17 Comparative Structures and Properties of Elastic Proteins
- 18 Mechanical Applications of Elastomeric Proteins – A Biomimetic Approach
- 19 Biomimetics of Elastomeric Proteins in Medicine
- Index
13 - Structure and Function of Resilin
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Contributors
- Elastomeric Proteins
- 1 Functions of Elastomeric Proteins in Animals
- 2 Elastic Proteins: Biological Roles and Mechanical Properties
- 3 Elastin as a Self-Assembling Biomaterial
- 4 Ideal Protein Elasticity: The Elastin Models
- 5 Fibrillin: From Microfibril Assembly to Biomechanical Function
- 6 Spinning an Elastic Ribbon of Spider Silk
- 7 Sequences, Structures, and Properties of Spider Silks
- 8 The Nature of Some Spiders' Silks
- 9 Collagen: Hierarchical Structure and Viscoelastic Properties of Tendon
- 10 Collagens with Elastin- and Silk-like Domains
- 11 Conformational Compliance of Spectrins in Membrane Deformation, Morphogenesis, and Signalling
- 12 Giant Protein Titin: Structural and Functional Aspects
- 13 Structure and Function of Resilin
- 14 Gluten, the Elastomeric Protein of Wheat Seeds
- 15 Biological Liquid Crystal Elastomers
- 16 Restraining Cross-Links in Elastomeric Proteins
- 17 Comparative Structures and Properties of Elastic Proteins
- 18 Mechanical Applications of Elastomeric Proteins – A Biomimetic Approach
- 19 Biomimetics of Elastomeric Proteins in Medicine
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Biological structures with long-range elasticity are found in most animals, where they serve a number of functions, such as storing kinetic energy, absorbing shocks and vibrations, and acting as antagonists for muscles. Different groups of animals have developed different materials specialised for these purposes; insects and other arthropods have used a rubber-like, exoskeletal protein, resilin, in many places where long-range elasticity is needed.
The protein was discovered by Weis-Fogh during a study of the flight system in locusts, when he realised that energy-saving mechanisms had to be present to allow storage of kinetic energy at the end of wing strokes. A detailed analysis revealed that several elastic elements participate in such energy storage: (a) the thoracic flight muscles themselves possess a passive elastic element, which in the locust accounts for about one-third of the total elasticity of the thorax; (b) the solid, sclerotized cuticle of the thorax, which can store significant amounts of energy, although it cannot be subjected to deformations larger than 2%; and (c) some small, cuticular patches, which possess long-range elasticity, allowing them to suffer considerable deformations and to return rapidly to their equilibrium shape when the deforming forces are released; they account for about one-fourth of the total elasticity of the thorax (Weis-Fogh, 1959, 1961a). Like most other cuticular regions, these patches contain both protein and chitin, and the elastic properties reside in the protein and not in the chitin fraction.
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- Elastomeric ProteinsStructures, Biomechanical Properties, and Biological Roles, pp. 259 - 278Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
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