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Toward spinning artificial spider silk

Nature Chemical Biology volume 11, pages 309–315 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Spider silk is strong and extensible but still biodegradable and well tolerated when implanted, making it the ultimate biomaterial. Shortcomings that arise in replicating spider silk are due to the use of recombinant spider silk proteins (spidroins) that lack native domains, the use of denaturing conditions under purification and spinning and the fact that the understanding of how spiders control silk formation is incomplete. Recent progress has unraveled the molecular mechanisms of the spidroin N- and C-terminal nonrepetitive domains (NTs and CTs) and revealed the pH and ion gradients in spiders' silk glands, clarifying how spidroin solubility is maintained and how silk is formed in a fraction of a second. Protons and CO2, generated by carbonic anhydrase, affect the stability and structures of the NT and CT in different ways. These insights should allow the design of conditions and devices for the spinning of recombinant spidroins into native-like silk.

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Figure 1: Spider silks and spidroins.
Figure 2: Overview of the natural spinning process and role of the terminal domains.
Figure 3: Schematic representation of charge interactions, protonation events and structural rearrangements that accompany NT monomer-to-dimer conversion and stabilization.
Figure 4: A photograph of an artificial spider silk fiber.
Figure 5: A schematic biomimetic spinning device.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to S. Knight for valuable discussions and helpful comments on this manuscript. The Swedish Research Council supported work in the authors' laboratory.

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  1. Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden

    Anna Rising & Jan Johansson

  2. Department of Neurobiology, Division of Neurogeriatrics, Care Sciences and Society, Center for Alzheimer Research, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden

    Anna Rising & Jan Johansson

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Correspondence to Anna Rising or Jan Johansson.

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Supplementary Table 1

Summary of techniques and proteins used to make artificial spider silk fibers (PDF 200 kb)

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Rising, A., Johansson, J. Toward spinning artificial spider silk. Nat Chem Biol 11, 309–315 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.1789

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