The authors of the new work found that metal ions are evenly distributed in the mandibles: they allow
The jaws of insects are also called mandibles, they are needed to gnaw food and defend themselves from attacks.
On the anterior edge of the mandibles there are often locatedadditional thickenings and teeth. These structures are formed by a combination of protein and carbohydrate polymers with abundant inclusion of metals: zinc, as well as manganese, copper, iron.
The authors of the new work decided to study the structureant mandibles, so that they could then use this information for other useful mechanisms. To establish the atomic structure of ant mandibles, they conducted atom probe tomography. In this case, a thin tip is separated from the sample, which is used as a tip to which high voltage is applied. The disrupted ions are recorded by the detector, allowing the structure of the original sample to be reconstructed with atomic precision.
As a result, it turned out that zinc ions in the mandibles of ants are distributed almost evenly and are very tightly bound to the amino acid residues of neighboring proteins.
It is this structure that allows us to supportclear shape of the surface of ant mandibles. This structural feature allows you to apply almost two-thirds less effort to chew pieces of food, compared, for example, with human tooth enamel.
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