Abstract
Spider major ampullate silk is a high-performance biomaterial that has received much attention. However, most studies ignore plasticity in silk properties. A better understanding of silk plasticity could clarify the relative importance of chemical composition versus processing of silk dope for silk properties. It could also provide insight into how control of silk properties relates to spider ecology and silk uses.We compared silk plasticity (defined as variation in the properties of silk spun by a spider under different conditions) between three spider clades in relation to their anatomy and silk biochemistry. We found that silk plasticity exists in RTA clade and orbicularian spiders, two clades that differ in their silk biochemistry. Orbiculariae seem less dependent on external spinning conditions. They probably use a valve in their spinning duct to control friction forces and speed during spinning. Our results suggest that plasticity results from different processing of the silk dope in the spinning duct. Orbicularian spiders seem to display better control of silk properties, perhaps in relation to their more complex spinning duct valve.
Highlights
Organisms often exhibit plasticity in their biomechanical traits
Silk properties differed between FDL, dropping dragline (DDL) and walking dragline (WDL) when the results from all species were pooled (MANOVA on material properties, effect of spinning method, Wilk’s lambda, P,0.0001, n = 134)
The material properties of spider silk we recorded (Table 1) are within the range of values reported in other studies [44,45,46], P. viridans individuals consistently exhibit surprisingly high silk stiffness and yield stress
Summary
Organisms often exhibit plasticity in their biomechanical traits. For instance, stiffness of insect cuticle [1], strength of plants leaves [2] or the keratin network of cells [3] can vary within one individual in response to environmental changes. Modern spiders spin up to seven different types of silk [8,9], most research focuses on major ampullate silk, forcibly obtained silk (i.e. silk manually reeled by a human experimenter from an immobilized spider under controlled conditions) This method neglects the potential importance of variation in the properties of major ampullate silk spun under different conditions, especially at the intra-specific level. A clear understanding of silk variability and its mechanisms within a phylogenetic context is needed to understand how spider ecology has shaped the evolution of silk production. This information would suggest the range of properties that might be achieved in synthetic analogs of spider silk
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