Due to physical and chemical properties as well as biocompatibility, spider silk has a great potential for use in medicine and biotechnology. It is applicable in the regeneration of the skin and nerve grafts. In this work, antibacterial property of spider silk was investigated. This feature would be especially useful for the application of spider threads in medicine. Silk of the spiders Linothele fallax (Mello-Leitão, 1926) and Linothele megatheloides Paz & Raven, 1990 was tested on Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterococcus faecalis. Prior to inoculation, thesilk was weighed, sterilized with hydrogen peroxide and the effect of the silk on bacteria was tested in Mueller-Hinton broth. A lack of antibacterial properties of the silk of L. fallax and L. megatheloides was observed. The results on antimicrobial properties of silk of mygalomorph spiders are published for the first time.
Spider silk is a promising material with great potential in biomedical applications due to its incredible mechanical properties and resistance to bacterial degradation, particularly commercially available strains. However, little is known about the bacterial communities that may inhabit spider webs and how these microorganisms interact with spider silk. In this study, we exposed two exopolysaccharide-secreting bacteria, isolated from webs of an orb spider, to major ampullate (MA) silk from host spiders. The naturally occurring lipid and glycoprotein surface layers of MA silk were experimentally removed to further probe the interaction between bacteria and silk. Extensibility of major ampullate silk produced by Triconephila clavata that was exposed to either Microbacterium sp. or Novosphigobium sp. was significantly higher than that of silk that was not exposed to bacteria. This strain-enhancing effect was not observed when the lipid and glycoprotein surface layers of MA silks were removed. The presence of exopolysaccharides was detected through NMR from MA silks exposed to these two bacteria but not from those without exposure. Here we report for the first time that exopolysaccharide-secreting bacteria inhabiting spider webs can enhance extensibility of host MA silks and silk surface layers play a vital role in mediating such effects.
First record of the spider Tegenaria ferruginea (Panzer, 1804) from Belarus, along with taxonomic diagnosis and photographs are presented. Contrary to the expectations, males and females were found during overwintering in the silken sac in the fort of Brest, Belarus.
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