Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Comparing the rheology of native spider and silkworm spinning dope

Nature Materials volume 5, pages 870–874 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Silk production has evolved to be energetically efficient and functionally optimized1, yielding a material that can outperform most industrial fibres2,3, particularly in toughness. Spider silk has hitherto defied all attempts at reproduction4,5,6, despite advances in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind its superb mechanical properties7,8,9. Spun fibres, natural and man-made, rely on the extrusion process to facilitate molecular orientation and bonding2,10,11,12. Hence a full understanding of the flow characteristics of native spinning feedstock (dope) will be essential to translate natural spinning to artificial silk production. Here we show remarkable similarity between the rheologies for native spider-dragline and silkworm-cocoon silk, despite their independent evolution and substantial differences in protein structure. Surprisingly, both dopes behave like typical polymer melts. This observation opens the door to using polymer theory13,14 to clarify our general understanding of natural silks, despite the many specializations found in different animal species1,12,15,16,17,18.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Exemplar oscillatory sweeps.
Figure 2: Modulus increase as a result of oscillatory shear and increased temperature for silkworm dope and characterization of the end products of these experiments using oscillatory sweeps.
Figure 3: Viscosity–shear-rate profiles, shear-stress (green) and normal-force (pink) measurements and corresponding oscillatory sweeps (G ′ red, G ′′ blue) for native spider-MAA and silkworm dope.
Figure 4: Oscillatory characterization of the effect of shear flow on silkworm dope.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Vollrath, F. & Knight, D. P. Liquid crystalline spinning of spider silk. Nature 410, 541–548 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Shao, Z. & Vollrath, F. Surprising strength of silkworm silk. Nature 418, 741 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Vollrath, F. & Porter, D. Spider silk as a model biomaterial. Appl. Phys. A 82, 205–212 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Lazaris, A. et al. Spider silk fibers spun from soluble recombinant silk produced in mammalian cells. Science 295, 472–476 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Seidel, A. et al. Regenerated spider silk: Processing, properties, and structure. Macromolecules 33, 775–780 (2000).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Shao, Z., Vollrath, F., Yang, Y. & Thogersen, H. C. Structure and behavior of regenerated spider silk. Macromolecules 36, 1157–1161 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Porter, D., Vollrath, F. & Shao, J. Z. Predicting the mechanical properties of spider silk as a model nanostructured polymer. Eur. Phys. J. E 16, 199–206 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Liu, Y., Shao, Z. & Vollrath, F. Relationships between supercontraction and mechanical properties of spider silk. Nature Mater. 4, 901–905 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Foo, C. W. P. et al. Role of pH and charge on silk protein assembly in insects and spiders. Appl. Phys. A 82, 223–233 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Vollrath, F., Madsen, B. & Shao, Z. The effect of spinning conditions on the mechanics of a spider’s dragline silk. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 268, 2339–2346 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Vollrath, F., Knight, D. P. & Hu, X. W. Silk production in a spider involves acid bath treatment. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 265, 817–820 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Knight, D. P. & Vollrath, F. Liquid crystals and flow elongation in a spider’s silk production line. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 266, 519–523 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Ferry, J. D. Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers (Wiley-VCH, New York, 1980).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Donald, A. M. & Windle, A. H. Liquid Crystalline Polymers Vol. 1,310 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Dicko, C., Vollrath, F. & Kenney, J. M. Spider silk protein refolding is controlled by changing pH. Biomacromolecules 5, 704–710 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Casem, M. L., Tran, L. P. P. & Moore, A. M. F. Ultrastructure of the major ampullate gland of the black widow spider, Latrodectus hesperus. Tissue Cell 34, 427–436 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Knight, D. P., Knight, M. M. & Vollrath, F. Beta transition and stress-induced phase separation in the spinning of spider dragline silk. Int. J. Biol. Macromol. 27, 205–210 (2000).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Vollrath, F. & Knight, D. P. Structure and function of the silk production pathway in the Spider nephila edulis. Int. J. Biol. Macromol. 24, 243–249 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  19. Yamaura, K., Okumura, Y., Ozaki, A. & Matsuzawa, S. Flow-induced crystallization of Bombyx-mori L silk fibroin from regenerated aqueous-solution and spinnability of its solution. Appl. Polym. Symp. 41, 205–220 (1985).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Chen, X., Knight, D. P., Shao, Z. & Vollrath, F. Regenerated Bombyx silk solutions studied with rheometry and FTIR. Polymer 42, 9969–9974 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Rammensee, S., Huemmerich, D., Hermanson, K. D., Scheibel, T. & Bausch, A. R. Rheological characterization of hydrogels formed by recombinantly produced spider silk. Appl. Phys. A 82, 261–264 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Ochi, A., Hossain, K. S., Magoshi, J. & Nemoto, N. Rheology and dynamic light scattering of silk fibroin solution extracted from the middle division of Bombyx mori silkworm. Biomacromolecules 3, 1187–1196 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Chen, X., Knight, D. P. & Vollrath, F. Rheological characterization of Nephila spidroin solution. Biomacromolecules 3, 644–648 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Ochi, A., Nemoto, N., Magoshi, J., Ohyama, E. & Hossain, K. S. Rheological behaviors of aqueous solution of silk fibroin. J. Soc. Rheol. Jpn 30, 289–294 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Terry, A. E., Knight, D. P., Porter, D. & Vollrath, F. pH induced changes in the rheology of silk fibroin solution from the middle division of Bombyx mori silkworm. Biomacromolecules 5, 768–772 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Vollrath, F. & Porter, D. Spider silk as an archetypal protein elastomer. Soft Matter 2, 377–385 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Porter, D. Group Interaction Modelling of Polymer Properties (Marcel Dekker, New York, 1995).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Porter, D. Combining molecular and continuum mechanics concepts for constitutive equations of polymer melt flow. J. Non-Newton. Fluid Mech. 68, 141–152 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Liu, C., He, J., v Ruymbeke, E., Keunings, R. & Bailly, C. Evaluation of different methods for the determination of the plateau modulus and the entanglement molecular weight. Polymer 47, 4461–4479 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Magoshi, J. et al. Crystallization of silk fibroin from solution. Thermochim. Acta 352, 165–169 (2000).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

For funding we thank the European Commission and the AFSOR of the United States of America as well as EPSRC. We also thank C. Dicko for comments and suggestions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK

    C. Holland, A. E. Terry, D. Porter & F. Vollrath

  2. ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0QX, UK

    A. E. Terry

Authors
  1. C. Holland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. E. Terry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. D. Porter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. F. Vollrath
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Experiments performed by C.H. Analysis by C.H., D.P., A.T. and F.V.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to F. Vollrath.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary information, figures and supplementary table 1 (PDF 195 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Holland, C., Terry, A., Porter, D. et al. Comparing the rheology of native spider and silkworm spinning dope. Nature Mater 5, 870–874 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1762

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1762

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing