Mar. Drugs 2011, 9(4), 666-679; doi:10.3390/md9040666
Article

Polymer Networks Produced by Marine Diatoms in the Northern Adriatic Sea

Vesna Svetličić 1,* email, Vera Žutić 1 email, Tea Mišić Radić 1 email, Galja Pletikapić 1 email, Amela Hozić Zimmermann 1 email and Ranieri Urbani 2 email
1 Division for Marine and Environmental Research, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička 54, Zagreb, Croatia 2 Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, I-34127 Trieste, Italy
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 25 January 2011; in revised form: 5 April 2011 / Accepted: 7 April 2011 / Published: 21 April 2011
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Biomaterials)
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Abstract: Using high resolution molecular technique of atomic force microscopy, we address the extracellular polymer production of Adriatic diatom Cylindrotheca closterium analyzed at the single cell level and the supramolecular organization of gel phase isolated from the Northern Adriatic macroaggregates. Our results revealed that extracellular polysaccharides freshly produced by marine diatoms can self-assemble directly to form gel network characteristics of the macroscopic gel phase in the natural aquatorium. Based on the experiments performed with isolated polysaccharide fractions of C. closterium and of macroaggregates gel phase, we demonstrated that the polysaccharide self-assembly into gel network can proceed independent of any bacterial mediation or interaction with inorganic particles.
Keywords: Cylindrotheca closterium; atomic force microscopy; Northern Adriatic macroaggregates; extracellular polysaccharides; marine gel network; self-assembly

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MDPI and ACS Style

Svetličić, V.; Žutić, V.; Radić, T.M.; Pletikapić, G.; Zimmermann, A.H.; Urbani, R. Polymer Networks Produced by Marine Diatoms in the Northern Adriatic Sea. Mar. Drugs 2011, 9, 666-679.

AMA Style

Svetličić V, Žutić V, Radić TM, Pletikapić G, Zimmermann AH, Urbani R. Polymer Networks Produced by Marine Diatoms in the Northern Adriatic Sea. Marine Drugs. 2011; 9(4):666-679.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Svetličić, Vesna; Žutić, Vera; Radić, Tea Mišić; Pletikapić, Galja; Zimmermann, Amela Hozić; Urbani, Ranieri. 2011. "Polymer Networks Produced by Marine Diatoms in the Northern Adriatic Sea." Mar. Drugs 9, no. 4: 666-679.

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