IntBIO: Collaborative Research: Silk Protein Innovation and Novelty (SPIN) : integrating across disciplines to decipher silk fiber evolution

丝绸是自然界最坚固、最轻的生物材料之一。它被成千上万的物种用于一系列应用。然而，除了少数物种外，人们对天然丝的基因组基础和材料特性知之甚少。本项目采用综合的方法来研究丝在多种用途中的分子、发育和功能基础。一个由自然历史学家、分子生物学家、发育生物学家和生物工程师组成的综合团队正在结合他们的专业知识，深入了解大自然如何塑造蚕丝纤维的功能。这项研究是工程新材料的基础，可以应用于许多产品，从手术粘合剂到可持续服装。作为该项目的一部分，多名博士后研究人员和研究生将获得基因组学、基因编辑和工程方面的跨学科培训。此外，该项目创建了一个旅游博物馆展览，以教育公众关于丝绸的自然特性。经过数亿年的进化，丝绸被塑造并重新适应了多种不同的用途，这些用途跨越了多个远亲节肢动物群体。迄今为止，对昆虫蚕丝的研究主要集中在家蚕（Bombyx mori）的纤维上。本项目采用一种比较的、多层次的方法来研究产丝昆虫中最主要的分支——球蝇和蛾。基因组学，蛋白质组学，功能遗传学和生物物理测量的结合将阐明丝绸如何粘附在水下基质上，它们如何巩固成不溶性纤维，并有助于了解其机械性能的分子基础。基因型和表型之间的进化相关性是交织在一起的，因果关系的直接测试是在战略上选择的可接受基因修饰的焦点物种中进行的。总体而言，该项目解决了首要问题，“自然如何塑造丝纤维的功能？”，并为基本的生物上层结构提供了一个新的框架，该框架在生产新型聚合物基生物材料方面具有未开发的潜力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Silk is one of nature’s strongest and lightest biomaterials. It is used by hundreds of thousands of species for an array of applications. Yet, outside of a few species, little is known about the genomic basis and material properties of natural silks. This project takes an integrative approach to examine the molecular, developmental, and functional basis of silk across a diversity of uses. An integrative team of natural historians, molecular biologists, developmental biologists, and bioengineers are combining their expertise to gain insight into how nature shapes silk fiber function. This research is foundational to engineering new materials that can applied to many products, from surgical adhesives to sustainable clothing. As part of this project, multiple postdoctoral researchers and graduate students gain interdisciplinary training in genomics, gene editing, and engineering. Furthermore, this project creates a traveling museum exhibit to educate the public about the natural properties of silk.Silk has been shaped and re-adapted for an extraordinary diversity of uses across multiple distantly related arthropod groups and hundreds of millions of years of evolution. To date, silk research in insects has focused largely on fibers from the domesticated silkworm moth, Bombyx mori. This project uses a comparative, multi-tiered approach to study silks of the most dominant clade of silk-producing insects, the caddisflies and moths. The combination of genomics, proteomics, functional genetics, and biophysical measurements will illuminate how silks adhere to underwater substrates, how they consolidate into an insoluble fiber, and help understand the molecular basis of their mechanical properties. Evolutionary correlations are woven between genotypes and phenotypes and direct tests of causality are conducted in strategically chosen focal species that are amenable to genetic modification. Overall, this project addresses the overarching question, “How does nature shape silk fiber function?” with a new framework for a fundamental biological superstructure that has untapped potential for the production of new polymer-based biomaterials.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.