Work

Effects of Mini-Spidroin Repeat Region on the Mechanical Properties of Artificial Spider Silk Fibers

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Spiders can produce up to seven different types of silk, each with unique mechanical properties that stem from variations in the repetitive regions of spider silk proteins (spidroins). Artificial spider silk can be made from mini-spidroins in an all-aqueous-based spinning process, but the strongest fibers seldom reach more than 25% of the strength of native silk fibers. With the aim to improve the mechanical properties of silk fibers made from mini-spidroins and to understand the relationship between the protein design and the mechanical properties of the fibers, we designed 16 new spidroins, ranging from 31.7 to 59.5 kDa, that feature the globular spidroin N- and C-terminal domains, but harbor different repetitive sequences. We found that more than 50% of these constructs could be spun by extruding them into low-pH aqueous buffer and that the best fibers were produced from proteins whose repeat regions were derived from major ampullate spidroin 4 (MaSp4) and elastin. The mechanical properties differed between fiber types but did not correlate with the expected properties based on the origin of the repeats, suggesting that additional factors beyond protein design impact the properties of the fibers.

Source: ACS Omega

DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.4c06031

Authors: Benjamin Schmuck, Gabriele Greco, Olga Shilkova, Anna Rising

Institutions: Karolinska Institutet, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Silk-based biomaterials and applications

Subfield: Biomaterials

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,935