Mineralization Control & Reversible Conformational Changes in Liquid-Crystalline Snail Adhesive

Certain species of terrestrial snails are capable of anchoring their full bodyweight to a variety of surfaces under both wet and dry conditions thanks to a thin-film structure known as a mucus epiphragm. Preliminary findings indicate that Cepaea nemoralis epiphragm may employ adhesion strategies similar to bivalve byssus, specifically in the use of liquid crystal phases and coiled-coil building blocks. However, little is known regarding the material’s structure, the storage and assembly of its precursors, or their response to mechanical deformation. The partially calcified nature of epiphragm also serves as a useful platform for studying the snail’s stabilization of amorphous mineral phases in acellular environments. We aim to employ scanning XRD/XRF to demonstrate specific chemical and mechanical cues which locally alter epiphragm structure, with special attention given to the control of calcium carbonate crystallization and water-activated self-healing behaviour.