Fig. 5: Possible energy landscape leading to the formation of aragonite or calcite biominerals. | Nature Communications

Fig. 5: Possible energy landscape leading to the formation of aragonite or calcite biominerals.

From: Myriad Mapping of nanoscale minerals reveals calcium carbonate hemihydrate in forming nacre and coral biominerals

Fig. 5: Possible energy landscape leading to the formation of aragonite or calcite biominerals.

The landscape includes all phases thus far found during biomineral formation: metastable ACCH2O, ACC, CCHH, MHC, and stable aragonite or calcite. A There are four pathways to crystallization from ACCH2O to a mature aragonite biomineral: direct or through ACC only, the other two pathways include one at a time CCHH or MHC. B In contrast, there are only two pathways from ACCH2O to a mature calcite biomineral, either directly or through ACC. ACCH2O and ACC are isoenergetic43 and most metastable, all other phases are downhill in the order observed in repeat acquisitions in biominerals here (Supplementary Table 5B) and previously in synthetic systems40,41,42,43. The color coding is the same as for all spectra and MMs in this work.

Back to article page