... spicule (Fig. 2H). These silica vesiclesoften remain as intact entities within the rings ⁄ cylin-ders, reacting positively to anti-silicatein (Fig. 2H).Catalytic function of silicatein: silica ... polymerase activity of silicatein, involvesstepwise addition of single silica monomeric units. Thisfinding implies that silicatein has two differentenzymatic properties, a silica esterase activity and ... experimental data show that, in additionto its silica polymerase activity, silicatein also comprisesa silica esterase function, thus supporting the conceptthat silicatein is involved in stabilization...