Engineered Spider Silk Proteins for Biomimetic Spinning of Fibers with Toughness Equal to Dragline Silks.

ABSTRACT: Spider silk is the toughest fiber found in nature, and bulk production of artificial spider silk that matches its mechanical properties remains elusive. Development of miniature spider silk proteins (mini-spidroins) has made large-scale fiber production economically feasible, but the fibers' mechanical properties are inferior to native silk. The spider silk fiber's tensile strength is conferred by poly-alanine stretches that are zipped together by tight side chain packing in β-sheet crystals. Spidroins are secreted so they must be void of long stretches of hydrophobic residues, since such segments get inserted into the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. At the same time, hydrophobic residues have high β-strand propensity and can mediate tight inter-β-sheet interactions, features that are attr

SUBMITTER: Arndt T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9720699 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature