Biology Meets Mineralogy: Investigations into Biomolecule Interactions with Aluminosilicate Clay Minerals and Layered Double Hydroxides
A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Clays and Engineered Mineral Materials".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (13 October 2023) | Viewed by 1820
Special Issue Editors
Interests: mineral surface processes; soil biogeochemistry
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Interactions of biomolecules (e.g., nucleic acids, nucleotides, proteins, peptides, amino acids, polysaccharides, simple sugars, and organic acids) with aluminosilicate clay minerals (e.g., kaolinite, montmorillonite, illite, pyrophyllite, and allophane) and layered double hydroxides (LDHs) (e.g., green rust and hydrotalcite) collectively underlie key processes in soil biogeochemistry, industrial processing, geobiology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and agriculture. These interactions are thus of great interest to researchers in several fields, including in the study of the origin of life. Many advancements have been made in unraveling the mechanisms behind biomolecule–aluminosilicate clay/LDH interactions that highlight the influence of mineralogy, biomolecule characteristics, and solution conditions on the reaction dynamics. There exist many insights relating to these systems that are currently unrealized and will be the key to future progress in a wide range of disciplines.
We welcome new advancements in the area of biomolecule interactions involving these prominent mineral surfaces. This includes, but is not be limited to, experimental and computational studies of protein adsorption onto clay minerals, mineral-catalyzed nucleic acid transformation, and enhancement of reactions that might have played a role in the origin of life.
Dr. Michael Schmidt
Dr. Harold S. Bernhardt
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- adsorption
- clay
- nucleic acids
- proteins
- layered double hydroxides
- peptides
- sugars
- catalysis
