Open AccessCustomized Flagelliform Spidroins Form Spider Silk-like Fibers at pH 8.0 with Outstanding Tensile Strength
Author(s) -
Xue Li,
Xingmei Qi,
Yu-Ming Cai,
Yijian Sun,
Rui Wen,
Rui Zhang,
Jan Johansson,
Qing Meng,
Gefei Chen
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
acs biomaterials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.082
H-Index - 50
ISSN - 2373-9878
DOI - 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.1c01354
Subject(s) - silk , spider silk , ultimate tensile strength , spider , materials science , composite material , polymer science , biology , zoology
Spider flagelliform silk shows the best extensibility among various types of silk, but its biomimetic preparation has not been much studied. Herein, five customized flagelliform spidroins (FlSps: S and NTD Fl -Sn-CTD Fl , n = 1-4), in which the repetitive region (S) and N-/C- terminal domains (NTD Fl and CTD Fl ) are from the same spidroin and spider species, were produced recombinantly. The recombinant spidroins with terminal domains were able to form silk-like fibers with diameters of ∼5 μm by manual pulling at pH 8.0, where the secondary structure transformation occurred. The silk-like fibers from NTD Fl -S4-CTD Fl showed the highest tensile strength (∼250 MPa), while those ones with 1-3 S broke at a similar stress (∼180 MPa), suggesting that increasing the amounts of the repetitive region can improve the tensile strength, but a certain threshold might need to be reached. This study shows successful preparation of flagelliform silk-like fibers with good mechanical properties, providing general insights into efficient biomimetic preparations of spider silks.