Researchers at Northwestern University and San Diego State University (SDSU) have better unraveled the complex process of how black widow spiders transform proteins into steel-strength fibers. This knowledge promises to aid scientists in creating equally strong synthetic materials.
The Black Widow
Black widow spiders and their relatives, native to temperate climates in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and South America, produce an array of silks with exceptional materials properties.
Scientists have long known the primary sequence of amino acids that make up some spider silk proteins and understood the structure of the fibers and webs. Previous research theorized that spider silk proteins await the spinning process as nano-size amphiphilic spherical micelles (clusters of water soluble and non-soluble molecules) before being funneled through the spider's spinning apparatus to form silk fibers. However, when scientists attempted to replicate this process, they were unable to create synthetic materials with the strengths and properties of native spider silk fibers.
Mind the Gap
"The knowledge gap was literally in the middle," Northwestern's Nathan C. Gianneschi said. "What we didn't understand completely is what goes on at the nanoscale in the silk glands or the spinning duct -- the storage, transformation and transportation process involved in proteins becoming fibers."
Gianneschi is the Jacob and Rosaline Cohn Professor in the department of chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and in the departments of materials science and engineering and of biomedical engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering. He and Gregory P. Holland, associate professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at SDSU and the author of more than 40 papers on spider silk, are the paper's co-corresponding authors.
Story Source
Northwestern University. "Mystery of how black widow spiders create steel-strength silk webs further unravelled: 'Modified micelle theory' may allow scientists to create equally strong synthetic materials." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 October 2018.
Daniel T.
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Daniel T.
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Nice little fluffy clouds laying around in the sky being lazy. And maybe a little bush lives there. Now we can begin working on lots of happy little things. We’ll lay all these little funky little things in there. We’ll put a happy little bush here. Talent is a pursued interest. That is to say, anything you practice you can do. A thin paint will stick to a thick paint. Everything’s not great in life, but we can still find beauty in it. Just relax and let it flow. That easy.
Jason H.
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