A study of the extraordinarily strong and tough silk produced by bagworms

Yoshioka, Taiyo; Tsubota, Takuya; Tashiro, Kohji; Jouraku, Akiya; Kameda, Tsunenori

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09350-3

Cited by 69 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 56 publications

(52 reference statements)

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“…Consequently, most of the recombinant protein fibers exhibit weak mechanical properties compared to natural spider silks. Aside from spider silks, there are many structural proteins with excellent mechanical properties in nature, such as mussel byssus, bagworm silks, sandcastle worm glue, and squid ring teeth, amongst others. The different sequences and structures of those proteins offer many options for the creation of mechanically strong protein fibers.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinspired and Mechanically Strong Fibers Based on Engineered Non‐Spider Chimeric Proteins

Sun

et al. 2020

Angew Chem Int Ed

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Silk‐protein‐based fibers have attracted considerable interest due to their low weight and extraordinary mechanical properties. Most studies on fibrous proteins focus on the recombinant spidroins, but these fibers exhibit moderate mechanical performance. Thus, the development of alternative structural proteins for the construction of robust fibers is an attractive goal. Herein, we report a class of biological fibers produced using a designed chimeric protein, which consists of the sequences of a cationic elastin‐like polypeptide and a squid ring teeth protein. Remarkably, the chimeric protein fibers exhibit a breaking strength up to about 630 MPa and a corresponding toughness as high as about 130 MJ m−3, making them superior to many recombinant spider silks and even comparable to some native counterparts. Therefore, this strategy is a novel concept for exploring bioinspired ultrastrong protein materials through the development of new types of structural chimeric proteins.

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Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinspired and Mechanically Strong Fibers Based on Engineered Non‐Spider Chimeric Proteins

Sun

et al. 2020

Angew Chem Int Ed

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“…Consequently, E. variegata silk fibroin exhibits highly crystalline nanodomains and far surpasses dragline silk in stiffness, strength, and toughness. [54][55][56] (A) n GPGXX, GGX B. mori, cocoon [45] (GA) n GY, GV A. diadematus, flagelliform [57,58] n/a * GPGXX, GGX E. variegata, cocoon [59] (A) 9 E(A) 12 , (GA) n GGY, GSG * β-sheet forming motifs are generally absent in flagelliform silk.…”

Section: Primary Sequence Of Silk Fibroinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical Synthesis of Silk-Mimetic Polymers

et al. 2019

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Silk is a naturally occurring high-performance material that can surpass man-made polymers in toughness and strength. The remarkable mechanical properties of silk result from the primary sequence of silk fibroin, which bears semblance to a linear segmented copolymer with alternating rigid (“crystalline”) and flexible (“amorphous”) blocks. Silk-mimetic polymers are therefore of great emerging interest, as they can potentially exhibit the advantageous features of natural silk while possessing synthetic flexibility as well as non-natural compositions. This review describes the relationships between primary sequence and material properties in natural silk fibroin and furthermore discusses chemical approaches towards the synthesis of silk-mimetic polymers. In particular, step-growth polymerization, controlled radical polymerization, and copolymerization with naturally derived silk fibroin are presented as strategies for synthesizing silk-mimetic polymers with varying molecular weights and degrees of sequence control. Strategies for improving macromolecular solubility during polymerization are also highlighted. Lastly, the relationships between synthetic approach, supramolecular structure, and bulk material properties are explored in this review, with the aim of providing an informative perspective on the challenges facing chemical synthesis of silk-mimetic polymers with desirable properties.

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“…SAXS/SANS data provide shape information but have to be transformed into real space assuming usually cylindrical objects (Yang et al, 1997;Sapede et al, 2005). For highly crystalline bagworm silk several levels of nanofibrillar assembly have been revealed (Yoshioka et al, 2019). The local distribution and interactions of nanoscale functional elements including skin-core morphologies cannot, however, be obtained from such studies which are usually performed on fiber bundles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%