guarding embryo development of zebrafish by shell engineering a strategy to shield life from ozone depletion守卫的斑马鱼胚胎发展壳工程策略保护生命免受臭氧损耗.pdfVIP

Guarding Embryo Development of Zebrafish by Shell Engineering: A Strategy to Shield Life from Ozone Depletion 1,2 1 1 1 1 1,3 Ben Wang , Peng Liu , Yanyan Tang , Haihua Pan , Xurong Xu , Ruikang Tang * 1 Center for Biomaterials and Biopathways, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China, 2 Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, 3 State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China Abstract Background: The reduced concentration of stratospheric ozone results in an increased flux of biologically damaging mid- ultraviolet radiation (UVB, 280 to 320 nm) reaching earth surfaces. Environmentally relevant levels of UVB negatively impact various natural populations of marine organisms, which is ascribed to suppressed embryonic development by increased radiation. Methodology/Principal Findings: Inspired by strategies in the living systems generated by evolution, we induce an extra UVB-adsorbed coat on the chorion (eggshell surrounding embryo) of zebrafish, during the blastula period. Short and long UV exposure experiments show that the artificial mineral-shell reduces the UV radiation effectively and the enclosed embryos become more robust. In contrast, the uncoated embryos cannot survive under the enhanced UVB condition. Conclusions: We suggest that an engineered shell of functional materials onto biological units can be developed as a strategy to shield lives to counteract negative changes of global environment, or to provide extra protection for the living units in biological resear