The elaborate structure of spider silk

Römer, Lin; Scheibel, Thomas

doi:10.4161/pri.2.4.7490

Cited by 292 publications

(182 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…The amyloid-specific dye Congo red showed differences in amyloid membrane colour, while the polycaprolactone membrane did not show any difference after staining. Optical images of all protein fibres prepared using different parameters supported the amyloid-like form of the proteins (BSA and GOD) in the solutions [16].…”

Section: Preparation and Characterisation Of Protein-based Biocatalytmentioning

confidence: 84%

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Biocatalytic protein membranes fabricated by electrospinning

Kabay

Kaleli

Sultanova

et al. 2016

Reactive and Functional Polymers

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In this study, a protein-based catalytic membrane was produced by electrospinning. Membrane activity was characterised in terms of response current for various glucose concentrations. We focused on the preparation of a scaffold by converting a globular protein to other structural forms using catastrophic solvents. A scaffolding protein, bovine serum albumin, and an enzyme, glucose oxidase (GOD), were selected as a model natural carrier matrix and a biologically active agent, respectively. Beta-mercaptoethanol (β-ME) was used to convert the globular protein to an amyloid-like form. A structural stabilising agent, 2,2,2-triflouroethanol (TFE), was used to maintain the final α-helical structure of the amyloid-like protein. The TFE:PBS (phosphate-buffered saline) ratio and various electrospinning parameters were analysed to minimise activity loss. Using this approach, we applied electrospinning to an active enzyme to obtain biocatalytic nanofibrous membranes. After optimising the protein electrospinning process, the activities of the protein nanofibrous membranes were monitored. GOD remained active in the new membrane structure. The highest enzyme activity was observed for the membranes prepared with a 1.5:1 (v:v) TFE:PBS solvent ratio. In that particular case, the immobilized enzyme created a current of 0.7 μA and the apparent activity was 2547 ± 132 U/m 2 .

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Section: Preparation and Characterisation Of Protein-based Biocatalytmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Silk is one of the oldest known protein fibres with functional properties. It has previously been reported that spider silk contains amyloid-like fibres when it is assembled in vitro [16]. Although biological fibres have many applications, the production of these natural fibres is not cost effective or efficient [17,18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biocatalytic protein membranes fabricated by electrospinning

Kabay

Kaleli

Sultanova

et al. 2016

Reactive and Functional Polymers

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“…However, the FT-IR analysis does not give complete information on the composition of the silks studied. Taking into account the FT-IR and MALDI-MS data and the published studies on the chemical characterization of spider silks (Craig et al 2000;Papadopoulos et al 2007;Vasanthavada et al 2007;Kluge et al 2008;Romer & Scheibel 2008;Blamires et al 2012), we suggest that mass difference of 198 Da corresponds to the proline-threonine (P-T) peptide sequences; that of 199 Da corresponds to the alanine-alanine-glycine (A-A-G) amino acids sequences; that of 215 Da corresponds glycine-alanine-serine (G-A-S) repeats; that of 225 Da corresponds to the glycine-alanine-proline (G-A-P) repeats; that of 231 Da is due to the serine-serineglycine (S-S-G) triad sequence; that of 245 Da belongs to the serine-serine-alanine (S-S-A) repeats. The mass differences of the most common amino acid sequences are summarized in Table III.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do habitat features affect the composition of silk proteins by Namibian arid-adaptedAriadnaspiders (Araneae: Segestriidae)?

Conti

Barbagallo

Battiato

et al. 2014

Italian Journal of Zoology

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This paper is the first to describe the silk produced by Segestriidae spiders. Field and specimen data together with webs secreted by Namibian arid-adapted Ariadna spiders were collected from different research work stations. The silks were solubilized with hexafluoroisopropanol and characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques, in order to get data on the silk composition. FT-IR analysis confirms that proteins are the main component of the extracted materials. MALDI-TOF mass spectra of silks of three different sites (R, M and K, with three varied environmental conditions: coastal foggy area, hot central desert area and savannah) reveal the presence of low-molecularweight (< 10,000 g/mol) proteins mostly based on glycine and alanine amino acids. Besides many peptides with identical or similar composition, other low-molar mass proteins with different compositions were also revealed in these silks. The DSC curves show that the studied silks have different melting temperature ranges. This behaviour may be due to the proteins having different molecular weight and/or different amino acid composition. The presence of small peptides with different amino acid composition could be correlated to the different habitats where the spiders live. Hypotheses linking different amino acid compositions with environmental features are suggested.

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“…Inspired by the fantastic properties of spider silk proteins [22][23][24][25] we began research into their production in 2002. 22,26,27 Initially, we concentrated on developing a method for recombinantly producing proteins with primary structures identical to those of naturally occurring Araneus diadematus major ampullate silk proteins (ADF-3 and ADF-4) and Nephila clavipes flagelliform silk proteins.…”

Section: Biotechnological Production Of Spider Silk Proteinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Production and processing of spider silk proteins

Hardy

Scheibel

2009

J. Polym. Sci. A Polym. Chem.

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Natural spider silk fibers have impressive mechanical properties (outperforming many man-made fibers) and are, moreover, biocompatible, biodegradable, and produced under benign conditions (using water as a solvent at ambient temperature). The problems associated with harvesting natural spider silks inspired us to devise a method to produce spider silk-like proteins biotechnologically (the first subject tackled in this highlight); we subsequently discuss their processing into various materials morphologies, and some potential technical and biomedical applications.

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The elaborate structure of spider silk

Cited by 292 publications

References 69 publications

Biocatalytic protein membranes fabricated by electrospinning

Biocatalytic protein membranes fabricated by electrospinning

Do habitat features affect the composition of silk proteins by Namibian arid-adaptedAriadnaspiders (Araneae: Segestriidae)?

Production and processing of spider silk proteins

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