Trematode eggshells: Novel protein biopolymers

In the past few years recombinant DNA technology has somewhat serendipitously shed new light on the formation of trematode eggshells, with the publication of the sequences of highly expressed female-specific genes encoding protein components of the schistosome eggshell and with the isolation of DOPA-rich proteins and one of the corresponding genes from Fasciola. These proteins and other structural polypeptides with repetitive structures were the subject of a recent meeting Bioengineering for Material Applications (sponsored by the Office of Naval Research in Bethesda, USA, June 1987). In this article, based on that meeting, John Cordingley explains how the structure of trematode eggshells appears to show features common to several other biopolymers.