Morphogenesis of crossed architectures in molluscan shells in 3D

Molluscan shells are a model system to study the most fundamental principles of biomineralization. Various shell structures are different in terms of their size, crystallography, shape and calcium carbonate polymorph of their mineral building blocks. Here, we propose to analyze pattern formation in the most common crossed shell architectures. Crossed-lamellar and cross-foliated structures, are unique architectures where the mineral building units are assembled to form crystallographically coherent domains. These domains evolve to form complex spatial configurations separated by twin-like abrupt changes in crystallographic texture. Astonishingly, in the case of molluscs, these domains can only be distinguished by the crystallographic orientation of the mineral units that comprise them. Following the evolution of the crossed patterns using 3D-XRD in ID13 will allow us to quantify the process of their formation in time and in space.