Modeling biosilicification at subcellular scales

Abstract

Biosilicification occurs in many organisms. Sponges and diatoms are major examples of them. In this chapter, we introduce a modeling approach that describes several biological mechanisms controlling silicification. Modeling biosilicification is a typical multiscale problem where processes at very different temporal and spatial scales need to be coupled: processes at the molecular level, physiological processes at the subcellular and cellular level, etc. In biosilicification morphology plays a fundamental role, and a spatiotemporal model is required. In the case of sponges, a particle simulation based on diffusion-limited aggregation is presented here. This model can describe fractal properties of silica aggregates in first steps of deposition on an organic template. In the case of diatoms, a reaction-diffusion model is introduced which can describe the concentrations of chemical components and has the possibility to include polymerization chain of reactions.