FLICKR, MICHAEL ZIMMER
Researchers have produced the first recombinant spider silk that mimics the toughness of the natural material, according to a study published last month (February 16) in Advanced Materials. The key to their success was including domains of the silk protein that help silk strands form properly.
Scientists from the University of Bayreuth in Germany expressed variants of one of three spider silk proteins from the European garden spider (Araneus diadematus) in E. coli. Previous studies only used versions of the protein containing the two central domains, which create a tough crystal-like structure nestled inside a stretchy gel-like material, but the Bayreuth team included two domains that naturally occur at the ends of the protein. “They do not contribute to the final structure and performance, but ...
