Tissue Regeneration in the Shell of the Giant Queen Conch, Strombus gigas

The crossed-lamellar microarchitecture (microstructure) of the shell of Strombus gigas, the giant Queen conch native to Caribbean habitats, is the most common of the several shell microarchitectures known in the mollusk family. We have studied tissue regeneration in juvenile S. gigas conchs and compared the microstructure in this regenerated tissue to the microstructure of wild S. gigas shells. The regenerated hard tissue was of two types: hard tissue grown during wound repair, and so-called "flat pearls" which are hard tissue grown on abiotic substrates inserted between the mantle and the outer covering. In both cases, the crossed-lamellar microstructure is observed after formation of a transition structure consisting of a large quantity of matrix and aggregates of aragonite crystallites.