Spider silk as rubber

Gosline, John M.; Denny, Mark W.; DeMont, M. Edwin

doi:10.1038/309551a0

Cited by 374 publications

(315 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Research by Gosline et al (1984) revealed that superconduction has profound implications on the mechanical behavior of spider silk, even suggesting a relationship between the microstructure and the tensile properties (Termonia, 1994(Termonia, ,2000. We found that supercontraction modified the tensile properties of spider silk and provided a key to understanding some aspects of the fiber tensile behavior.…”

Section: Recovery In Spider Silk Fibers (Elices Et Al 2004)mentioning

confidence: 74%

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The hidden link between supercontraction and mechanical behavior of spider silks

Calafat

Plaza

Pérez‐Rigueiro

et al. 2011

Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials

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The remarkable properties of spider silks have stimulated an increasing interest in understanding the roles of their composition and processing, as well as in the massproduction of these fibers. Previously, the variability in the mechanical properties of natural silk fibers was a major drawback in the elucidation of their behavior, but the authors have found that supercontraction of these fibers allows one to characterize and reproduce the whole range of tensile properties in a consistent way. The purpose of this review is to summarize these findings.After a review of the pertinent mechanical properties, the role of supercontraction in recovering and tailoring the tensile properties is explained, together with an alignment parameter to characterize silk fibers. The concept of the existence of a mechanical ground state is also mentioned. These behaviors can be modeled, and two such models -at the molecular and macroscopic levels -are briefly outlined. Finally, the assessment of the existence of supercontraction in bio-inspired fibers is considered, as this property may have significant consequences in the design and production of artificial fibers.

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Section: Recovery In Spider Silk Fibers (Elices Et Al 2004)mentioning

confidence: 74%

“…Furthermore, it was also found that supercontraction leads to another significant modification of the properties of spider silk fibers (Gosline et al, 1984), since the tensile behavior of supercontracted MA silk fibers tested in water corresponds to an elastomer, as illustrated in Fig. 1.…”

Section: Supercontractionmentioning

confidence: 91%

The hidden link between supercontraction and mechanical behavior of spider silks

Calafat

Plaza

Pérez‐Rigueiro

et al. 2011

Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials

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“…This strategy has provided new opportunities in fundamental studies of spider silk genetics, silk protein structure and function, and materials processing [2,[4][5][6]. In general, interest in spider silk has increased in recent years due to the differences in mechanical properties when compared to silkworm silk and the presence of the multi-gene family encoding this group of silks as a basis for the study of protein structurefunction relationships [4,[6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

Section: Spider Silksmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The unique organization of the family of silk genes in more advanced spiders provides a fertile area for the exploration of structure-function relationships in protein design. For example, the dragline spider silk from the golden orb weaver N. clavipes displays impressive toughness, and a balance of stiffness, strength and extensibility reflecting the native function of the silk orb web construction [7,13,14]. Transgenic expression of spider silks in plants (tobacco and potato) and mammalian epithelial cells has been reported [15,16] and may point the way toward more substantive production of these proteins in the future.…”

Section: Spider Silksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silk-based biomaterials

et al. 2003

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Silk from the silkworm, Bombyx mori, has been used as biomedical suture material for centuries. The unique mechanical properties of these fibers provided important clinical repair options for many applications. During the past 20 years, some biocompatibility problems have been reported for silkworm silk; however, contamination from residual sericin (glue-like proteins) was the likely cause. More recent studies with well-defined silkworm silk fibers and films suggest that the core silk fibroin fibers exhibit comparable biocompatibility in vitro and in vivo with other commonly used biomaterials such as polylactic acid and collagen. Furthermore, the unique mechanical properties of the silk fibers, the diversity of side chain chemistries for 'decoration' with growth and adhesion factors, and the ability to genetically tailor the protein provide additional rationale for the exploration of this family of fibrous proteins for biomaterial applications. For example, in designing scaffolds for tissue engineering these properties are particularly relevant and recent results with bone and ligament formation in vitro support the potential role for this biomaterial in future applications. To date, studies with silks to address biomaterial and matrix scaffold needs have focused on silkworm silk. With the diversity of silk-like fibrous proteins from spiders and insects, a range of native or bioengineered variants can be expected for application to a diverse set of clinical needs. r

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“…Flagelliform or spiral silk, which makes up the bulk of the orb-web, differs from dragline silk in amino acid content, secondary structure, and extraordinary extensibility. 27 The repeating GPGGX blocks, which were previously identified in dragline silk but not found in other less elastic silks, have been identified in flagelliform silk. 28 Protein and amino acid composition of silks from the black widow spider (Latrodectus hesperus) show variation between dragline, inner egg case, and scaffolding silks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Orientational order of Australian spider silks as determined by solid‐state NMR

et al. 2006

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A simple solid-state NMR method was used to study the structure of 13 C-and 15 Nenriched silk from two Australian orb-web spider species, Nephila edulis and Argiope keyserlingi. Carbon-13 and 15 N spectra from alanine-or glycine-labeled oriented dragline silks were acquired with the fiber axis aligned parallel or perpendicular to the magnetic field. The fraction of oriented component was determined from each amino acid, alanine and glycine, using each nucleus independently, and attributed to the ordered crystalline domains in the silk. The relative fraction of ordered alanine was found to be higher than the fraction of ordered glycine, akin to the observation of alanine-rich domains in silk-worm (Bombyx mori) silk. A higher degree of crystallinity was observed in the dragline silk of N. edulis compared with A. keyserlingi, which correlates with the superior mechanical properties of the former #

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Spider silk as rubber

Cited by 374 publications

References 10 publications

The hidden link between supercontraction and mechanical behavior of spider silks

The hidden link between supercontraction and mechanical behavior of spider silks

Silk-based biomaterials

Orientational order of Australian spider silks as determined by solid‐state NMR

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