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的应用。然而，除了少数物种外，人们对天然丝绸的基因组基础和材料特性知之甚少。这个项目采取综合的方法来研究不同用途的丝绸的分子、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，深入了解自然如何塑造丝绸纤维的功能。这项研究为设计可应用于从外科粘合剂到可持续服装的许多产品的新材料奠定了基础。作为该项目的一部分，多名博士后研究人员和研究生获得了基因组学、基因编辑和工程学方面的跨学科培训。此外，该项目还创建了一个巡回博物馆展览，教育公众关于丝绸的自然属性。丝绸经过塑造和重新调整，以适应多个遥远的节肢动物群体和数亿年的进化过程中非凡的多样化用途。迄今为止，昆虫的蚕丝研究主要集中在家蚕蛾的纤维上。这个项目使用了一种比较的、多层次的方法来研究最主要的产丝昆虫分支--瓢虫和飞蛾的丝质。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附着在水下基质上，它们如何凝结成不溶性纤维，并有助于了解其机械性能的分子基础。在基因类型和表型之间编织着进化的相关性，并在经过战略选择的、可接受基因修改的重点物种中进行直接因果关系测试。总体而言，这个项目解决了一个最重要的问题，“大自然如何塑造丝绸纤维的功能？”这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.