What is Biomine-DB?

Biomineralization is a process in which minerals form inside or outside the cells of a variety of organisms bestowing hard skeletons or structures on the organism. These biominerals are mainly calcium carbonates and calcium phosphates. While the majority of biominerals formed in bones, shells, skeletons and spicules are formed of mineral crystals, all contain various amounts of proteins giving these minerals extraordinary properties. The cell orchestrates the mineral formation process through the expression and translocation of proteins. These proteins nucleate the crystals either intracellular or extracellularly. They can also inhibit mineral formation and crystal growth in unwanted sites. Thus biomineral formation can be achieved by diverse mechanisms. The aim of this database is to catalog these proteins, in order to enable different aspects of biomineralization research.

Please cite: Kamel BS, Voolstra CR, Medina M. 2016. BioMine-DB: A database for metazoan biomineralization proteins. PeerJ Preprints 4:e1983v2 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1983v2

Please send feedback or questions to Bishoy Kamel bishoyh At unm.edu