Dear Colleagues
Melanins are heterogeneous polymeric natural pigments and these pigments are widely distributed in nature from bacteria to humans. Today, although the structure of other organic polymers has been enlightened in detail, the structure of melanin polymers has not been elucidated in detail, and these natural biopolymers still remain a mystery. While melanin pigment polymerizes in acidic solutions, it dissolves in alkaline environments, separating into oligomers and monomers. These organic macromolecules are insoluble in organic solvents such as ethanol and methanol, but dissolved by ultrasonic extraction with DMSO (Dimethyl Sulfoxide). Today, melanins are grouped under different subheadings such as eumelanin, pheomelanin, pyomelanin, allomelanin and neuromelanins. As a researcher, I have focused on the production of this pigments for the last four years and I want to illuminate the structure of these mysterious macromolecular pigments with different techniques. Since this organic polymer can be produced very little and is very expensive, its use in industrial areas is not widespread. I have achieved very successful results in melanin pigment production with my new methods and I have managed to increase the yield hundreds of times.
I wonder can we use cryo-electron microscopy techniques to illuminate the structure of these pigments? I want to benefit from the knowledge and experience of expert researchers in this field. I can send melanin pigment to researchers who are interested in the subject. Thank you for your interest and contribution.
Best regards.
Dear Bayram,
My understanding of this concern is that you can use the Cyro-electron microscope for the structure elucidation of melanin pigments. I herewith attached an article which I believe you would find the best fit method for carrying out your characterization. Regards,
Article The structural unit of melanin in the cell wall of the funga...
Dear Bayram,
Whether it is possible to solve the structure of your pigment depends on the question whether it polymerizes into a regular pattern or whether the polimerization is in fact a type of aggregation. Cryo-EM needs repetition in order to solve a structure. For example if solving a protein structure it takes 100s of images of the dissolved proteins and because each protein is a copy of the other we can calculate an average map of those images and only after seeing the average we can solve the structure. Therefor it is only possible if your polymerization is regular (e.g. crystaline, nanotube, fiber), but not possible if this is not the case. Stil, it could be worth a try to at least have a look at it with cryo-EM to see if this is the case.
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