Abstract
Spiders have developed specialized silks with outstanding biophysical properties over millions of years of evolution. As biopolymers composed by highly repetitive amino acid motifs, spider silks have been the focus of research for years. Due to recent advances in genetic engineering, recombinant spider silks have been produced, revealing the relationships between their protein structure and their mechanical properties. Each amino acid motif present in the silk adopts a particular secondary structure responsible for conferring a specific mechanical property to it. This feature has opened up the possibility to produce recombinant silks with controlled properties for various biotechnological applications. Moreover, spider silks are biocompatible and biodegradable biomaterials, which also allow their application in medicine. Accordingly, the relationship between molecular composition, secondary structure, and mechanical properties of spider silks is described in this chapter, along with a discussion of the current strategies for the production of recombinant spider silks, their importance in new biotechnological applications, and the current status of the field.
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