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Nature's Toughest Biological Armor Is Made of Sugar

EnolaGaia

I knew the job was dangerous when I took it ...
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How do single-celled organisms survive the most extreme thermal / chemical conditions? In a word - "sweetness."
Found: A sweet way to make everyday things almost indestructible

The secret to making clothing practically indestructible could be the same thing that makes us grow out of it: sugar.

A new discovery from the University of Virginia School of Medicine reveals how sugars could be used to make almost indestructible cloth and other materials. Nature figured it out long ago, but the answer has been hidden away in bubbling baths of acid. ...

In certain acidic hot springs, even volcanic hot springs, live ancient single-celled organisms that can exist in conditions far too extreme for most forms of life. They have tiny appendages called pili that are so tough that they resisted UVA scientists' numerous efforts to break them apart to learn their secrets. "We were unable to take these things apart in boiling detergent. They just remained absolutely intact," said researcher Edward H. Egelman, PhD, of UVA's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. "So we then tried much harsher treatments, including boiling them in lye, which is sodium hydroxide. Nope."

The researchers tried several other approaches before throwing up their hands and turning to cryo-electron microscopy, which allows them to image submicroscopic things almost down to individual atoms. What they found was shocking. "There's just a huge amount of sugar covering the entire surface of these filaments in a way that has never been seen before," Egelman said. "These bugs have devised a way to just use massive amounts of sugar to cover these filaments and make them resistant to the incredible extremes of the environment in which they live." ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190627114109.htm
 
So the secret to being indestructable (and thus superpowered!) is coating yourself in sugar? Just a second, I have to run to the cake store.
 
So I wonder if it is related to the fact that sugar is used to preserve food? Jam has an unbelievable amount of sugar in relation to fruit in it. Too bad it doesn't preserve our tooth enamel.
 
So I wonder if it is related to the fact that sugar is used to preserve food? Jam has an unbelievable amount of sugar in relation to fruit in it. Too bad it doesn't preserve our tooth enamel.

Biochemistry isn't my field, but here's my layman's interpretation ...

Preserving foods by sugaring involves removing much of their water content (desiccation) and then covering / embedding them in sugar. This creates chemical conditions that are inimical to microbial life. The sugar may blend with the food material, but it doesn't bond or attach to it in the same way as the "sugar armoring" reported here.

This involves edible sugar - a single and chemically simplistic specimen out of all the carbohydrate "sugars".

The published article refers to the pilii structures as being "glycosylated":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycosylation

This means there's a chemical (and hence structural) bonding between carbohydrate (i.e., sugar) molecules and other bio-substances such as proteins. My guess is that the "sugar armor" represents one or more layers of sugar molecules chemically bonded to the proteins comprising the organisms' exterior surface(s).

Complex sugars form polymer chains and are the precursors to biological structural materials such as cellulose.

Bottom Line: A tough polymer material chemically bonded to the underlying surface.
 
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