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Spider Silk Fibers Spun from Soluble Recombinant Silk Produced in Mammalian Cells
Anthoula Lazaris,1*Steven Arcidiacono,2Yue Huang,1Jiang-Feng Zhou,1François Duguay,1Nathalie Chretien,1Elizabeth A. Welsh,2Jason W. Soares,2Costas N. Karatzas1
Spider silks are protein-based "biopolymer"
filaments or threads secreted by specialized epithelial cells as
concentratedsoluble precursors of highly repetitive primary sequences.
Spiderdragline silk is a flexible, lightweight fiber of extraordinarystrength and toughness comparable to that of synthetic high-performancefibers. We sought to "biomimic" the process of spider silk
productionby expressing in mammalian cells the dragline silk genes
(ADF-3/MaSpIIand MaSpI) of two spider
species. We produced soluble recombinant(rc)-dragline silk proteins
with molecular masses of 60 to 140kilodaltons. We demonstrated the wet
spinning of silk monofilamentsspun from a concentrated aqueous
solution of soluble rc-spidersilk protein (ADF-3; 60 kilodaltons) under modest shear and coagulationconditions. The spun
fibers were water insoluble with a fine diameter(10 to 40 micrometers)
and exhibited toughness and modulus valuescomparable to those of
native dragline silks but with lower tenacity.Dope solutions with
rc-silk protein concentrations >20% and postspinningdraw
were necessary to achieve improved mechanical propertiesof the spun
fibers. Fiber properties correlated with finer fiberdiameter and
increased birefringence.
1 Nexia Biotechnologies, Vaudreuil-Dorion,
Quebec J7V 8P5, Canada.
2 Materials Science Team,
U.S. Army Soldier Biological Chemical Command, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
alazaris{at}nexiabiotech.com
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