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The different types of silk (major ampullate silk, minor ampullate silk, flagelliform silk, aciniform silk, tubiliform silk, pyriform silk, and aggregate silk) [11] are composed of different types of proteins. Dragline silk is mainly formed by spidroin proteins. It is a type of major ampullate silk and is produced in the major ampullate gland.
Spider silk structure: crystalline beta-sheets separated by amorphous linkages. Silks have a hierarchical structure. The primary structure is the amino acid sequence of its proteins (), mainly consisting of highly repetitive glycine and alanine blocks, [4] [5] which is why silks are often referred to as a block co-polymer.
Spiders make spider silk for various purposes such as weaving their webs, protecting their eggs or as a safety line. The amphipod Peramphithoe femorata uses silk to make a nest out of kelp blades. Another amphipod, Crassicorophium bonellii, use silk to build shelter. Carp produce fibroin units, a component of silk, to attach their eggs to rocks ...
In certain groups of spider species, so-called cribellate spiders, the cribellum is a silk spinning organ. Unlike the usual spinnerets of spiders, the cribellum consists of one or more plates covered in thousands of tiny spigots , tiny holes that hardly project from the surface, in contrast to the elongated spigots that project from spinnerets ...
Argiope flavipalpis adult female An Argiope juvenile female spiders both same genus on the stabilimentum at the center of the web. A stabilimentum (plural: stabilimenta), also known as a web decoration, is a conspicuous silk structure included in the webs of some species of orb-web spider.
Kim Kraig Thompson, a retired lawyer, invented the protein expression platform in 2002, which would become the basis for Kraig Lab's work with spider silk. [3] He founded Kraig Biocraft Laboratories in April 2006 to develop and commercialize spider silks and other high-performance polymers gene and sequences using platform technology in combination with genetic engineering concepts.
A spinneret is a silk-spinning organ of a spider or the larva of an insect. Some adult insects also have spinnerets, such as those borne on the forelegs of Embioptera. [1] Spinnerets are usually on the underside of a spider's opisthosoma, and are typically segmented. [2] [3] While most spiders have six spinnerets, some have two, four, or eight. [4]
The average toughness of the fibres is 350 MJ/m 3, and some are up to 520 MJ/m 3, making the silk twice as tough as any other spider silk known. [8] The web of Darwin's bark spider is remarkable in that it is not only the longest spanning web ever observed, but is the largest orb web ever seen, at an area of up to 2.8 square metres (30 sq ft). [2]