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Solid‐state NMR relaxation studies of Australian spider silks
Author(s) -
Kishore A. I.,
Herberstein M. E.,
Craig C. L.,
Separovic F.
Publication year - 2002
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/bip.10150
Subject(s) - silk , spider , spider silk , relaxation (psychology) , chemistry , polymer science , solid state , orb (optics) , materials science , biology , zoology , image (mathematics) , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science , composite material
Solid‐state NMR techniques were used to study two different types of spider silk from two Australian orb‐web spider species, Nephila edulis and Argiope keyserlingi. A comparison of 13 C‐T 1 and 1 H‐T 1ρ solid‐state NMR relaxation data of the Ala Cα, Ala Cβ, Gly Cα, and carbonyl resonances revealed subtle differences between dragline and cocoon silk. 13 C‐T 1ρ and 1 H‐T 1 relaxation experiments showed significant differences between silks of the two species with possible structural variations. Comparison of our data to previous 13 C‐T 1 relaxation studies of silk from Nephila clavipes (A. Simmons et al., Macromolecules, 1994, Vol. 27, pp. 5235–5237) also supports the finding that differences in molecular mobility of dragline silk exist between species. Interspecies differences in silk structure may be due to different functional properties. Relaxation studies performed on wet (supercontracted) and dry silks showed that the degree of hydration affects relaxation properties, and hence changes in molecular mobility are correlated with functional properties of silk. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 61: 287–297, 2002