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Morphology and crystal structure of a recombinant silk‐like molecule, SLP4
Author(s) -
Anderson J. Philip
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0282(19980405)45:4<307::aid-bip5>3.0.co;2-p
Subject(s) - silk , crystallite , crystallography , transmission electron microscopy , crystal structure , chemistry , morphology (biology) , electron diffraction , diffraction , molecule , crystal (programming language) , materials science , optics , nanotechnology , composite material , physics , organic chemistry , geology , programming language , computer science , paleontology
Morphology and crystal structure of a recombinant silk‐like molecule, SLP4, were studied. Wide angle x‐ray scattering (WAXS) and electron diffraction revealed that SLP4 lyophilized powder and thin films were isomorphic with the silk I crystal structure. Transmission electron microscopy of SLP4 thin films demonstrated a morphology of flat, variable width, crystallites that may aggregate in an epitaxial manner. Theoretical diffraction patterns from silk I crystal structure models were critically compared with SLP4 WAXS data. The analysis concluded that while the crankshaft model is capable of describing details of the SLP4 structural data well, the out‐of‐register model does not explain the experimental results. In particular, the predicted intensities of the crystallographic reflections for the out‐of‐register model are inconsistent with the SLP4 WAXS data. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biopoly 45: 307–321, 1998