Byssus

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Glove from Byssusseide in Überseemuseum Bremen

Byssus , byssos ( Greek : βύσσος) denotes three different things. Byssus in the sense of mussel silk is a name for the secretion from the foot glands of various types of mussels . The individual secretions of several glands in the foot of the mussels mainly form phenolic proteids , which are combined to form adhesive threads and harden. While many mussel species only produce byssus as young mussels, this secretion can last for life in others. Well-known examples of mussels with byssus threads are the mussels , which attach themselves to structures in the surf zone with the byssus threads and can loosen them again in bad environmental conditions, as well as the fig mussels , which spin entire networks of byssus threads and thus fix foreign bodies. Byssus also refers to fibers made of silk , cotton or flax , from which fine fabrics are made. Byssus used to be a non-taxonomic collective name for mold fungi with a fiber-like structure, which were counted among the Hyphomycetes -Dematiei .

Byssus of the pen shell in antiquity

Incident light microscope image of byssus fibers
Cross-section of byssus fibers embedded in white cotton fibers. The elliptical cross-section of the fibers can be seen

The fibers of the noble pen shell ( Pinna nobilis L.), which live in the Mediterranean , have been obtained since ancient times. The first clear text source, and thus the first written evidence of shell silk, comes from Tertullian (De pallio III, 6) from the 2nd century. The oldest remaining shell silk object is a knitted hat from the 14th century, which was found in Saint Denis near Paris in 1978. The fabrics made from shell silk fibers are called byssus. The majority of the ancient occurrences of the word byssos, however, refer to precious, fine linen or precious, fine cotton . The New Testament occurrences of the word Byssos (or its derivatives) in Lk 16.19  EU , Rev 18  EU , 12.16 and Rev 19  EU , 8.14 mean fine linen . The fiber is shiny gold, very thin and extremely strong and durable, in this respect comparable to modern nylon threads . The pen shell is by far the largest shell in the Mediterranean. It can be up to a meter long. Today the pen shell is protected and the craft is almost extinct.

In ancient times of fine linen or was Steckmuschel wool woven fabric, the so-called byssus or sea silk , a very precious textile material. It is often claimed that byssus is "many times finer than silk", but the byssus fibers have a cross-section of around 10–50 µm, deburred silk has a cross-section of 7-20 µm, only tussah silk (wild silk) with a diameter of 20– 40 µm is much coarser in comparison. Because of its durability and the laborious extraction process, Byssus is very popular and valuable. Textiles made of shell silk were especially popular in the Middle Ages among high church dignitaries and high nobility.

The commercial production of byssus textiles in Sardinia ended in the 1940s. Byssus is now only processed on the Sardinian island of Sant'Antioco , where there is also a Byssus Museum.

composition

Pinna nobilis bowl with linen
Mytilus with linen

Byssus is produced by different types of mussels, e.g. B. Pinna spp. Mytilus spp. Bathymodiolus thermophilus , Guekensia demissa , Modiolus modiolus and Dreissena polymorpha ( zebra mussel ).

Compared to hair, byssus threads have a smooth fiber surface without scales, the fiber cross-section is elliptical and can therefore be distinguished from silk fibers. The diameter of the fibers is between 10 and 45 micrometers, which means that the finer fibers underneath, according to sorting, are among the finest natural animal fibers . Byssus threads are not very tear-resistant, especially when dry, because among the natural animal fibers, byssus is surpassed in its tensile strength by spider silks (e.g. from Araneus diadematus ), silks and animal hair. The tensile strength for the proximal part of the fiber is 35 megapascals and for the distal part 75 megapascals. The proximal part of the byssus can be stretched to three times its length and thus has a comparatively high extensibility , which is only surpassed by spider silk among animal natural fibers. The more tear-resistant, distal part of the fiber can be stretched to twice its length.

The byssus threads of the saltwater mussel species Mytilus sp. consist of a fiber core of three collagen -like proteins Precol-NG , Precol-D and Precol-P (of English. Precollagen ) and a fiber cladding of the proteins Mfp 1-6 (of English. Mussel foot protein ). Mfp-1 covers the preCol proteins of the fiber core as a fiber sheath (Latin cuticula ) and reduces the corrosion of the fiber in sea water. Mfp-3 and Mfp-5 are superimposed and mainly responsible for the adhesion . Among the three proteins of the fiber core, preCol-NG (from English non-gradient , `` evenly distributed '') is distributed over the entire fiber, preCol-D occurs in the distal area and preCol-P occurs in the proximal area. The medium brown color is caused by the storage of pheomelanin . The Mfp-1 is non-covalently cross -linked to the dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanines via calcium ions and iron ions , which increases the strength. The dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanine in Mfp-1 arises from tyrosine through post-translational modification . In the fiber sheath made of Mfp-1 there are ball-shaped areas with particularly strongly cross-linked and stronger Mfp-1 , which are embedded in a layer of less cross-linked Mfp-1 . The dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanine also contributes to increased light absorption and thus to UV protection of the preCol proteins of the fiber core.

Despite the lower flow velocities in the habitat , the byssus threads of the freshwater mussel Dreissena polymorpha have the highest tensile strength of the fibers over the entire length of the mussel species mentioned , presumably because their byssus fibers do not contain any collagen-like proteins. The byssus proteins from Dreissena sp. are also cross-linked by dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanine, and have an atypically electron-dense contact surface. In saltwater mussels, there are clear differences in strength between the proximal and distal areas of the byssus threads, the more distal (distal, preCol-D -containing) parts, viewed in isolation, are more solid than those of the freshwater mussel Dreissena sp .

literature

  • Hilda Ecsedy: Böz - An Exotic Cloth in the Chinese Imperial Court. In: Altorientalische Forschungen. Vol. 3, 1975, OCLC 5528403541 , pp. 145-153.
  • Felicitas Maeder: The project Sea-silk - Rediscovering an Ancient Textile Material. In: Archaeological Textiles Newsletter. Issue 35, 2002, pp. 8-11.
  • Felicitas Maeder, Ambros Hänggi, Dominik Wunderlin: Bisso marino. Fili d'oro dal fondo del mare. = Shell silk. Catalog for the exhibition in the Natural History Museum Basel. Natural History Museum et al., Basel 2004, ISBN 88-7439-114-5 .
  • Felicitas Maeder: Shell silk is not in everywhere that it says byssus. Linguistic and material aspects of a misunderstanding - and the consequences. In: Karlheinz Dietz, Christian Hannick, Carolina Lutzka, Elisabeth Maier (eds.): The Christ picture. On origin and development in East and West. Files from the congresses in Würzburg, 16. – 18. October 2014, and Vienna, 17.-18. March 2015 (= The Eastern Christianity, New Series, Volume 62). Würzburg 2016, pp. 790–848.
  • John E. Hill: Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina 2009, ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1 . Section 12 and "Appendix B - Sea Silk."
  • John E. Hill: The Peoples of the West. 2004. A draft annotated translation of the 3rd century Weilüe - Section 12 and Appendix D. depts.washington.edu
  • Daniel L. McKinley: Pinna and Her Silken Beard: A Foray Into Historical Misappropriations. In: Ars Textrina: A Journal of Textiles and Costumes. Vol. 29, Winnipeg, Canada, June 1998, pp. 9-223.
  • Franz Olck : Byssos . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 1, Stuttgart 1897, Col. 1108-1114.
  • Cecie Starr, Ralph Taggart: Biology: The Unity and Diversity of Life. 10th. Edition, Thomson Learning, Belmont, CA 2004, ISBN 978-0-5343-8800-3 .
  • Ruth D. Turner, Joseph Rosewater: The Family Pinnidae in the Western Atlantic. In: Johnsonia. Volume 3, Issue 38, 1958, pp. 285-326.

Web links

Commons : Byssus  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Byssus  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Georg Krünitz: Byssus . In: Oeconomische Encyclopädie (1773-1858), Volume 7.
  2. ↑ Eugen Pierer: Pierer's Universal Lexicon 4th Edition (1857-1865).
  3. ↑ Felicitas Maeder: Shell silk is not everywhere that it says byssus. Linguistic and material aspects of a misunderstanding - and the consequences. In: Karlheinz Dietz, Christian Hannick, Carolina Lutzka, Elisabeth Maier (eds.): The Christ picture. On origin and development in East and West. Files from the congresses in Würzburg, 16. – 18. October 2014, and Vienna, 17.-18. March 2015 (= The Eastern Christianity, New Series, Volume 62). Würzburg 2016, pp. 790 - 848 (p. 810).
  4. ↑ Felicitas Maeder: Shell silk is not everywhere that it says byssus. Linguistic and material aspects of a misunderstanding - and the consequences. In: Karlheinz Dietz, Christian Hannick, Carolina Lutzka, Elisabeth Maier (eds.): The Christ picture. On origin and development in East and West. Files from the congresses in Würzburg, 16. – 18. October 2014, and Vienna, 17.-18. March 2015 (= The Eastern Christianity, New Series, Volume 62). Würzburg 2016, p. 809.
  5. ↑ See in detail: Franz Olck : Byssos. In: RE. Volume III, 1, 1897, pp. 1108-1114.
  6. ↑ Cf. the relevant dictionaries: Exegetical dictionary for the New Testament ; Bauer / Aland: Greek-German dictionary of the New Testament writings on the word.
  7. ↑ Peter M. Latzke, Rolf Hesse: Textile fibers. Scanning electron microscopy of chemical and natural fibers. Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-87150-274-X , pp. 55-56.
  8. ↑ a b c S. Brazee, E. Carrington: Interspecific Comparison of the Mechanical Properties of Mussel Byssus. In: Biol. Bull. Volume 211, 2006, pp. 263-274. (PDF)
  9. ↑ a b J. S. Jaworski: Properties of byssal threads, the chemical nature of their colors and the veil of Manoppello. In: Proceedings of the international workshop on the Scientific approach to the Acheiropoietos images. 2010. (PDF)
  10. ↑ a b c d e J. Gosline, M. Lillie, E. Carrington, P. Guerette, C. Ortlepp, K. Savage: Elastic proteins: biological roles and mechanical properties. In: Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. Volume 28, 357 (1418), 2002, pp. 121-132. PMID 11911769 ; PMC 1692928 (free full text).
  11. ↑ T. Lu, Z. Liao, M. Liu, M. Ye, L. Tan, RX Wang: Identification of mussel foot proteins with low molecular mass from Mytilus coruscus plaques. In: Acta Hydobiolica Sinica. Volume 35 (1), 2011, pp. 30-35. doi: 10.3724 / SP.J.1035.2011.00030 . (PDF) ( Memento of the original from December 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ssswxb.ihb.ac.cn
  12. ^ Q. Lin, D. Gourdon, C. Sun, N. Holten-Andersen, TH Anderson, JH Waite, JN Israelachvili: Adhesion mechanisms of the mussel foot proteins mfp-1 and mfp-3. In: Proc Natl Acad Sci US A. Vol. 104 (10), 2007, pp. 3782-3786. PMID 17360430 ; PMC 1820661 (free full text).
  13. ↑ a b N. Holten-Andersen, TE Mates, MS Toprak, GD Stucky, FW Zok, JH Waite: Metals and the integrity of a biological coating: the cuticle of mussel byssus. In: Langmuir . Volume 25 (6), 2009, pp. 3323-3326. doi: 10.1021 / la8027012 . PMID 18847291 ; PMC 2746015 (free full text).
  14. ↑ MJ Harrington, A. Masic, N. Holten-Andersen, JH Waite, P. Fratzl: Iron-clad fibers: a metal-based biological strategy for hard flexible coatings. In: Science. Volume 328 (5975), 2010, pp. 216-220. doi: 10.1126 / science.1181044 . PMID 20203014 ; PMC 3087814 (free full text).
  15. ↑ A. Gantayet, L. Ohana, ED Sone: Byssal proteins of the freshwater zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha. In: Biofouling. Volume 29 (1), 2013, pp. 77-85. doi: 10.1080 / 08927014.2012.746672 . PMID 23211030 .
  16. ↑ N. Farsad, ED Sone: Zebra mussel adhesion: structure of the byssal adhesive apparatus in the freshwater mussel, Dreissena polymorpha. In: J Struct Biol. Volume 177 (3), 2012, pp. 613-20. doi: 10.1016 / j.jsb.2012.01.011 . PMID 22309789 .