Abstract
Herein we present a chimeric recombinant spider silk protein (spidroin) whose aqueous solubility equals that of native spider silk dope and a spinning device that is based solely on aqueous buffers, shear forces and lowered pH. The process recapitulates the complex molecular mechanisms that dictate native spider silk spinning and is highly efficient; spidroin from one liter of bacterial shake-flask culture is enough to spin a kilometer of the hitherto toughest as-spun artificial spider silk fiber.
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Acknowledgements
We thank L. Holm, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences for help with photography, as well as S. Takeuchi and A. Hsiao at the University of Tokyo for introduction into the use of pulled glass capillaries for fiber formation. We also thank F. Palm, Uppsala University, for lending us a microelectrode puller. Q.J. was supported by a stipend from the Chinese Scholarship Council. The Swedish Research Council (grants no. 2014-2408 and 2014-10371 to A.R. and J.J.), CIMED (to J.J.) and FORMAS (2015-629 to A.R.) supported this work.
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M.A., Q.J., A.A., X.-Y.L., M.L., and P.P. performed the experiments; A.R., J.J., G.R.P., Q.M., C.V.R., M.T., H.H. supplied equipment and expertise; A.R. and J.J. conceived and designed the study; M.A., A.R. and J.J. wrote the manuscript. All authors edited the manuscript.
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Supplementary Results, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 and Supplementary Figures 1–7. (PDF 819 kb)
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41589_2017_BFnchembio2269_MOESM590_ESM.mov
Spinning NT2RepCT in a biomimetic spinning device. Fibers form instantaneously as the highly concentrated spinning dope hits the pH 5.0 aqueous buffer. (MOV 23001 kb)
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Andersson, M., Jia, Q., Abella, A. et al. Biomimetic spinning of artificial spider silk from a chimeric minispidroin. Nat Chem Biol 13, 262–264 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2269
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2269
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