Spider silk fibers have a sophisticated hierarchical structure composed of proteins with highly repetitive sequences. Their extraordinary mechanical properties, defined by a unique combination of strength and extensibility, are superior to most man-made fibers. Therefore, spider silk has fascinated mankind for thousands of years. However, due to their aggressive territorial behavior, farming of spiders is not feasible on a large scale. For this reason, biotechnological approaches were recently developed for the production of recombinant spider silk proteins. These recombinant proteins can be assembled into a variety of morphologies with a great range of properties for technical and medical applications. Here, the different approaches of biotechnological production and the advances in material processing toward various applications will be reviewed.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6948-8 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Exploring the Unique Properties and Superior Schwann Cell Guiding Abilities of Spider Egg Sac Silk.
ACS Appl Bio Mater
January 2025
Institute of Physics and Materials Science, Department of Natural Sciences and Sustainable Ressources, BOKU University, Peter Jordan-Straß 82, 1190 Vienna, Austria.
Spider silk (SPSI) is a promising candidate for use as a filler material in nerve guidance conduits (NGCs), facilitating peripheral nerve regeneration by providing a scaffold for Schwann cells (SCs) and axonal growth. However, the specific properties of SPSI that contribute to its regenerative success remain unclear. In this study, the egg sac silk of is investigated, which contains two distinct fiber types: tubuliform (TU) and major ampullate (MA) silk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDigest: Evolution of dragline silk in araneids show super tensile performance in web-building and non-web-building spiders.
Evolution
January 2025
School of Environmental and Life Sciences (SELS), Faculty of Science and Health, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom.
Wolff (2024) takes a comparative phylogenetic approach to study the evolution of dragline silk in 164 species of spiders, including both araneid and non-araneid species. Many structural and mechanical properties of dragline silk showed no correlations; however, both tensile strength and toughness correlated with birefringence-an indicator for the directional ordering of protein materials in the silk fibre. These properties do not seem to differ between web-building and non-web-building spiders; many spider families were found to include species that produce super-performing silk as well as species that produce weak-performing silk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBioinspired 1D Anisotropic Double-Spiral Metal Wires for Efficient Fog Harvesting.
Small
January 2025
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for the Green Preparation and Application of Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, P. R. China.
Innovative design strategies of fog harvesting devices (FHDs) demonstrate promising remedy for water crisis in arid areas. 1D FHDs ensure unimpeded wind circulation and can be manufactured more cost-effectively for extensive regions. Inspired by cactus thorns, desert beetles, and spider silk, two metal organic frameworks (MOFs) functionalized Cu wires with opposite wettability are double-twisted by a mechanical twisting machine, forming 1D double-spiral Cu wires with alternating superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic dual-MOF patterns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiomimetic peptide conjugates as emerging strategies for controlled release from protein-based materials.
Drug Deliv
December 2025
Biomedical Materials and Devices for Revolutionary Integrative Systems Engineering (BMD-RISE) Research Unit, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Biopolymers, such as collagens, elastin, silk fibroin, spider silk, fibrin, keratin, and resilin have gained significant interest for their potential biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability, and mechanical properties. This review focuses on the design and integration of biomimetic peptides into these biopolymer platforms to control the release of bioactive molecules, thereby enhancing their functionality for drug delivery, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) and silk fibroin repeats, for example, demonstrate how engineered peptides can mimic natural protein domains to modulate material properties and drug release profiles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHolocellulose nanofibrils biomimetic entrapment of liquid metal enable ultrastrong, tough, and lower-voltage-driven paper device.
Carbohydr Polym
March 2025
Beijing Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, MOE Engineering Research Center of Forestry Biomass Materials and Energy, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China; State Key Laboratory of Efficient Production of Forest Resources, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address:
Integrating liquid metal (LM) with wood fibers for flexible paper electronics is intriguing yet extremely challenging due to poor mechanical performance. Here, we disclose a hemicellulose trapping strategy to achieve exceptional ultrastrong and tough LM-based paper electronics. Holocellulose nanofibrils (HCNFs) with hemicellulose retention of approximately 20 % are found to effectively entrap nanoscale LM within the fibril network, analogous to spider silk capturing small water droplets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!