The elasticity of spiders' webs is due to water-induced mobility at a molecular level

Bonthrone, Karen M.; Vollrath, Fritz; Hunter, Brian K.; Sanders, Jeremy K. M.

doi:10.1098/rspb.1992.0054

Cited by 47 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…This observation indicates that hydration is vital for the native mechanical function of glow-worm silk, as is the case for flagelliform silk (Bonthrone et al, 1992;Guinea et al, 2010) as well as other silks and non-silk elastomeric proteins (Porter and Vollrath, 2009;Truong et al, 2011). The functional importance of hydration is reflected by other experimental results obtained in this study, including: a) the relative abundance of hydrophilic residues in the silk compared to previously described silk fibres (Table 1); b) the low crystalline fraction of glow-worm silk inferred by comparison of X-ray scattering patterns and amino acid analysis; c) the presence of protease inhibitors in silk (Table 2) which may protect silk proteins with high solvent accessibility from degradation by environmental proteases; and d) the ability for freshly harvested silk, but not dried silk, to be solubilised in 1% SDS (Section 3.3).…”

Section: The Importance Of Hydrationmentioning

confidence: 97%

The other prey-capture silk: Fibres made by glow-worms (Diptera: Keroplatidae) comprise cross-β-sheet crystallites in an abundant amorphous fraction

Walker

Weisman

Trueman

et al. 2015

Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part B: Biochemistry an

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The other prey-capture silk: Fibres made by glow-worms (Diptera: Keroplatidae) comprise cross-β-sheet crystallites in an abundant amorphous fraction, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part B (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.cbpb.2015 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Keywords: silk; Arachnocampa; glow-worm; cross-β-sheet; flagelliform; extensibility; disordered A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT AbstractGlow-worms (larvae of dipteran genus Arachnocampa) are restricted to moist habitats where they capture flying prey using snares composed of highly extensible silk fibres and sticky mucus droplets.Little is known about the composition or structure of glow-worm snares, or the extent of possible convergence between glow-worm and arachnid capture silks. We characterised Arachnocampa richardsae silk and mucus using X-ray scattering, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and amino acid analysis. Silk but not mucus contained crystallites of the cross-β-sheet type, which occur in unrelated insect silks but have not been reported previously in fibres used for prey capture. Mucus proteins were rich in Gly (28.5%) and existed in predominantly a random coil structure, typical of many adhesive proteins. In contrast, the silk fibres were unusually rich in charged and polar residues, particularly Lys (18.1%), which we propose is related to their use in a highly hydrated state.Comparison of X-ray scattering, infrared spectroscopy and amino acid analysis data suggests that silk fibres contain a high fraction of disordered protein. We suggest that in the native hydrated state, silk fibres are capable of extension via deformation of both disordered regions and cross-β-sheet crystallites, and that high extensibility is an adaptation promoting successful prey capture. This study illustrates the rich variety of protein motifs that are available for recruitment into biopolymers, and how convergently evolved materials can nevertheless be based on fundamentally different protein structures.

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Section: The Importance Of Hydrationmentioning

confidence: 97%

The other prey-capture silk: Fibres made by glow-worms (Diptera: Keroplatidae) comprise cross-β-sheet crystallites in an abundant amorphous fraction

Walker

Weisman

Trueman

et al. 2015

Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part B: Biochemistry an

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“…Because the glycoprotein molecules within droplets contain charged amino acids that are considered to be hydrophilic (Choresh et al, 2009), it is probable that some of the atmospheric water initially attracted by the LMWCs in a droplet's outer aqueous covering is incorporated into the underlying glycoprotein as the water content of these two droplet regions comes into equilibrium. Nuclear magnetic resonance studies indicate that water molecules enhance viscous thread plasticity (Bonthrone et al, 1992). Therefore, we hypothesize that water uptake by glycoprotein increases droplet extensibility.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humidity affects the extensibility of an orb-weaving spider's viscous thread droplets

Opell

Karinshak

Sigler

2011

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYThe prey-capture threads found in most spider orb webs rely on viscous droplets for their stickiness. Each droplet is formed of a central mass of viscoelastic glycoprotein glue surrounded by an aqueous covering, both of which incorporate hydrophilic components. We found that the extensibility of droplets on Larinioides cornutus threads increased as humidity increased. However, the deflection of the droplets' supporting axial lines did not change, indicating that atmospheric water uptake increases glycoprotein plasticity, but not glycoprotein adhesion. The extensibility of droplets, along with that of the thread's supporting axial fibers, is responsible for summing the adhesion of multiple thread droplets. Therefore, daily changes in humidity have the potential to significantly alter the performance of viscous threads and orb webs.

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“…HPO 4 and KNO 3 ) salts (Vollrath et al, 1990;Vollrath and Tillinghast, 1991;Townley et al, 2012;Townley and Tillinghast, 2013). The stickiness of the spiral threads is conferred by the presence of the glycoproteins (Bonthrone et al, 1992;Sahni et al, 2010Sahni et al, , 2011Opell, et al, 2013). The salts induce cohesive forces that cause the aggregate silk to coalesce along the flagelliform thread into droplets that resemble beads on a string (Sahni et al, 2014b;Opell et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diet-induced covariation between architectural and physicochemical plasticity in an extended phenotype

Blamires

Hasemore

Martens

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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The adaptive benefits of extended phenotypic plasticity are imprecisely defined due to a paucity of experiments examining traits that are manipulable and measurable across environments. Spider webs are often used as models to explore the adaptive benefits of variations in extended phenotypes across environments. Nonetheless, our understanding of the adaptive nature of the plastic responses of spider webs is impeded when web architectures and silk physicochemical properties appear to co-vary. An opportunity to examine this co-variation is presented by modifying prey items while measuring web architectures and silk physiochemical properties. Here, we performed two experiments to assess the nature of the association between web architectures and gluey silk properties when the orb web spider Argiope keyserlingi was fed a diet that varied in either mass and energy or prey size and feeding frequency. We found web architectures and gluey silk physicochemical properties to co-vary across treatments in both experiments. Specifically, web capture area co-varied with gluey droplet morphometrics, thread stickiness and salt concentrations when prey mass and energy were manipulated, and spiral spacing co-varied with gluey silk salt concentrations when prey size and feeding frequency were manipulated. We explained our results as A. keyserlingi plastically shifting its foraging strategy as multiple prey parameters simultaneously varied. We confirmed and extended previous work by showing that spiders use a variety of prey cues to concurrently adjust web and silk traits across different feeding regimes.

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The elasticity of spiders' webs is due to water-induced mobility at a molecular level

Cited by 47 publications

References 21 publications

The other prey-capture silk: Fibres made by glow-worms (Diptera: Keroplatidae) comprise cross-β-sheet crystallites in an abundant amorphous fraction

The other prey-capture silk: Fibres made by glow-worms (Diptera: Keroplatidae) comprise cross-β-sheet crystallites in an abundant amorphous fraction

Humidity affects the extensibility of an orb-weaving spider's viscous thread droplets

Diet-induced covariation between architectural and physicochemical plasticity in an extended phenotype

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