Hierarchical products building blocks

In biological systems, skeletal materials such as cell walls, bones, and shells are made primarily of a nanoscale building block of polysaccharides, proteins, and inorganic salts. The assembly of these building blocks facilitates the production of a hierarchical framework structure. Materials with hierarchical structures produced by organisms are mainly based on how the comprising components are biosynthesized and subsequently how they would be self-assembled. Once the structures are established, it is difficult to modify them into another form with a different function for an appropriate purpose. 

The rate and direction of the movement correspond to those of the fiber production. The fibers were reported to produee at a rate of 2 nm/min at 25°C (Brown, Jr. et al. 1976). However, A. xylinum produeed the fiber faster on NOC templates at a rate of 4.5nm/min at 24 °C. This gap was considered due to difference of the strength of the interaetion between the biosynthesized fiber and the NOC surface. This also indicated that the NOC surface promoted the secretion rate of the fibers. More to importanee, the regulated movement of the bacteria due to the ordered surface of NOC may trigger the development a 3D structure of hierarchical architecture from the nano to the microlevels. Therefore, we have been attempting to regulate the 3D architecture of materials using the nanofibers secreted by A. xylinum as a building block. 

---