DOI: 10.1242/jeb.202.23.3295. The mechanical design of spider silks: from fibroin sequence to mechanical function

The mechanical design of spider silks: from fibroin sequence to mechanical function

10.1242/jeb.202.23.3295

Crossref journal-article

The Company of Biologists

Journal of Experimental Biology (237)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Spiders produce a variety of silks, and the cloning of genes for silk fibroins reveals a clear link between protein sequence and structure–property relationships. The fibroins produced in the spider’s major ampullate (MA) gland, which forms the dragline and web frame, contain multiple repeats of motifs that include an 8–10 residue long poly-alanine block and a 24–35 residue long glycine-rich block. When fibroins are spun into fibres, the poly-alanine blocks form β-sheet crystals that crosslink the fibroins into a polymer network with great stiffness, strength and toughness. As illustrated by a comparison of MA silks from Araneus diadematus and Nephila clavipes, variation in fibroin sequence and properties between spider species provides the opportunity to investigate the design of these remarkable biomaterials.

Bibliography

Gosline, J. M., Guerette, P. A., Ortlepp, C. S., & Savage, K. N. (1999). The mechanical design of spider silks: from fibroin sequence to mechanical function. Journal of Experimental Biology, 202(23), 3295â3303.

Authors 4

J. M. Gosline (first)
P. A. Guerette (additional)
C. S. Ortlepp (additional)
K. N. Savage (additional)

References 30 Referenced 1,029

10.1016/0010-406X(70)90988-6 / Comp. Biochem. Physiol / Amino acid composition of spider silks by Andersen (1970)
{'key': '2024121803514212500_JEXBIO_202_23_3295C2', 'first-page': '185', 'article-title': 'X-ray modulus of silk fibers from Nephila clavipes and Bombyx mori', 'volume-title': 'Silk Polymers', 'author': 'Becker', 'year': '1994'} / Silk Polymers / X-ray modulus of silk fibers from Nephila clavipes and Bombyx mori by Becker (1994)
10.1002/pro.5560070315 / Protein Sci / Spider minor ampullate silk proteins contain new repetitive sequences and highly conserved non-silk-like ‘spacer regions’ by Colgin (1998)
10.1002/pat.1994.220050801 / Polymers Adv. Technol. / Mechanical and thermal properties of dragline silk from Nephila clavipes by Cunnliff (1994)
10.1242/jeb.65.2.483 / J. Exp. Biol / The physical properties of spider’s silk and their role in the design of orb-webs by Denny (1976)
{'volume-title': 'Structures', 'year': '1978', 'author': 'Gordon', 'key': '2024121803514212500_JEXBIO_202_23_3295C6'} / Structures by Gordon (1978)
{'volume-title': 'The Science of Structures and Materials.', 'year': '1988', 'author': 'Gordon', 'key': '2024121803514212500_JEXBIO_202_23_3295C7'} / The Science of Structures and Materials. by Gordon (1988)
10.1016/0160-9327(86)90049-9 / Endeavour / The structure and properties of spider silk by Gosline (1986)
10.1038/309551a0 / Nature / Spider silk as rubber by Gosline (1984)
{'key': '2024121803514212500_JEXBIO_202_23_3295C10', 'first-page': '237', 'article-title': 'The macromolecular design of spider’s silks', 'volume-title': 'Biomimetics: Design and Processing of Materials', 'author': 'Gosline', 'year': '1995'} / Biomimetics: Design and Processing of Materials / The macromolecular design of spider’s silks by Gosline (1995)
{'key': '2024121803514212500_JEXBIO_202_23_3295C11', 'first-page': '328', 'article-title': 'Elastomeric network models for the frame and viscid silks from the orb web of the spider Araneus diadematus', 'volume-title': 'Silk Polymers: Materials Science and Biotechnology', 'author': 'Gosline', 'year': '1994'} / Silk Polymers: Materials Science and Biotechnology / Elastomeric network models for the frame and viscid silks from the orb web of the spider Araneus diadematus by Gosline (1994)
10.1021/ma961293c / Macromolecules / Fiber morphology of spider silk – the effect of tensile deformation by Grubb (1997)
10.1126/science.272.5258.112 / Science / The spider silk fibroin gene family: gland specific expression controls silk properties by Guerette (1996)
10.1006/jmbi.1997.1478 / J. Mol. Biol. / Evidence from flagelliform silk cDNA for the structural basis of elasticity and modular nature of spider silks by Hayashi (1998)
10.1016/S0021-9258(18)41777-2 / J. Biol. Chem. / Isolation of a clone encoding a second dragline silk fibroin by Hinman (1992)
{'key': '2024121803514212500_JEXBIO_202_23_3295C16', 'first-page': '1', 'article-title': 'Degree of crystallinity and modulus relationships of silk threads from Bombyx mori', 'volume': '3', 'author': 'Iizuka', 'year': '1965', 'journal-title': 'Biorheology'} / Biorheology / Degree of crystallinity and modulus relationships of silk threads from Bombyx mori by Iizuka (1965)
{'volume-title': 'Silk Polymers. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society. 370pp', 'year': '1994', 'author': 'Kaplan', 'key': '2024121803514212500_JEXBIO_202_23_3295C17'} / Silk Polymers. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society. 370pp by Kaplan (1994)
10.1021/ma951098i / Macromolecules / Local structure in spider dragline silk investigated by 2-dimensional spin-diffusion NMR by Kummerlin (1996)
10.2307/3979658 / Sci. News / Artificial spider silk by Lipkin (1996)
10.1007/BF00175878 / J. Mol. Evol / Highly repetitive structure and its organization of the silk fibroin gene by Mita (1994)
10.1126/science.271.5245.84 / Science / Molecular orientation and two-component nature of the crystalline fraction of spider dragline silk by Simmons (1996)
10.1002/(SICI)1097-0282(199706)41:7<703::AID-BIP1>3.0.CO;2-T / Biopolymers / Non-periodic lattice crystals in the hierarchical microstructure of spider MA silk by Thiel (1996)
{'volume-title': 'Physics of Rubber Elasticity', 'year': '1975', 'author': 'Treloar', 'key': '2024121803514212500_JEXBIO_202_23_3295C23'} / Physics of Rubber Elasticity by Treloar (1975)
10.1007/978-1-349-16673-2 / Structural Biomaterials by Vincent (1982)
10.1038/scientificamerican0392-70 / Scient. Am. / Spider webs and silks by Vollrath (1992)
10.4159/harvard.9780674436961 / The Axis and Circumference by Wainwright (1988)
10.1515/9780691218090 / Mechanical Design in Organisms by Wainwright (1982)
10.1177/004051757704701003 / Text. Res. J / Dimensions, birefringence and force–elongation behaviour of major and minor ampullate silk fibres from orb-web spinning spiders by Work (1977)
10.1073/pnas.87.18.7100 / Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA / Structure of a protein superfiber: spider dragline silk by Xu (1990)
10.1021/ma970548z / Macromolecules / Small angle X-ray scattering of spider dragline silk by Yang (1997)

Dates

Type	When
Created	4 years, 4 months ago (April 25, 2021, 1:36 a.m.)
Deposited	8 months, 1 week ago (Dec. 17, 2024, 10:51 p.m.)
Indexed	5 days, 21 hours ago (Aug. 20, 2025, 8:53 a.m.)
Issued	25 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 1, 1999)
Published	25 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 1, 1999)
Published Online	25 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 1, 1999)
Published Print	25 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 1, 1999)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Gosline_1999, title={The mechanical design of spider silks: from fibroin sequence to mechanical function}, volume={202}, ISSN={1477-9145}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.202.23.3295}, DOI={10.1242/jeb.202.23.3295}, number={23}, journal={Journal of Experimental Biology}, publisher={The Company of Biologists}, author={Gosline, J. M. and Guerette, P. A. and Ortlepp, C. S. and Savage, K. N.}, year={1999}, month=dec, pages={3295–3303} }

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  "published": {
    "date-parts": [
      [
        1999,
        12,
        1
      ]
    ]
  }
}