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Abstract
ABSTRACTSpider silk is an attractive biopolymer with numerous potential applications due to its remarkable characteristics. Among the six categories of spider silks, flagelliform (Flag) spider silk possesses longer and more repetitive core domains than others, therefore performing the highest extensibility. To investigate the correlation between the recombinant spidroin size and the synthetic fiber properties, four recombinant proteins with different sizes [N-Scn-C (n=1-4)] were constructed and expressed using IMPACT system. Subsequently, different recombinant spidroins were spun into fibers through wet-spinning via a custom-made continuous post-drawing device. Mechanical tests of the synthetic fibers with four parameters (maximum stress, maximum extension, Young's modulus and toughness) demonstrated that the extensibility of the fibers showed a positive correlation with spidroin size, consequently resulting in the extensibility of N-Sc4-C fiber ranked the highest (58.76%) among four fibers. Raman data revealed the relationship between secondary structure content and mechanical properties. The data here provide a deeper insight into the relationship between the function and structure of Flag silk for future design of artificial fibers.
Highlights
Orb-weaving spiders can produce up to six kinds of silk and one sticky aggregate for different tasks (Adrianos et al, 2013; Rising and Johansson, 2015)
Flagelliform spidroin (Flag) has been widely studied due to its outstanding extensibility based on specific structure and large protein size; the core domain of Flag is highly repetitive and rich in Gly content, resulting in the recombinant Flag being difficult to express in the current engineering systems (Hayashi and Lewis, 2001; Heim et al, 2010; Vendrely and Scheibel, 2007)
The Sc amino acid sequence showed GPGGX and GGX (X=A, V, L, F) motifs were contained, which were conserved within Flag spidroin from Nephila clavipes (N.c.) (Hayashi and Lewis, 2000)
Summary
Orb-weaving spiders can produce up to six kinds of silk and one sticky aggregate for different tasks (Adrianos et al, 2013; Rising and Johansson, 2015). Beyond its excellent mechanical properties, spider silk is biocompatible and biodegradable, making its use very promising to fulfill various unique demands (Schacht et al, 2015), including some medical applications such as drug delivery vesicles and cell scaffold (Lammel et al, 2011; Wang et al, 2006; Widhe et al, 2013; Wohlrab et al, 2012), and military applications such as body armor Flagelliform spidroin (Flag) contains (GPGGX)n repeat motifs (43≤n≤63, X=A/V/Y/S) that form β-turns, juxtaposed to (GGX)n motifs and spacer motifs that form helices and β-sheets These motifs combine to form spring-like spirals that provide the excellent extensibility of Flag (Adrianos et al, 2013; Hayashi and Lewis, 2001, 2000; Scheibel, 2004). The knowledge of the relationship between protein size and mechanical properties is of urgent demand
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