X-RAY DIFFRACTION OF NATURAL SPIDER SILKS SYNTHETIC MIMICS AND NEWLY DESIGNE

这个子项目是利用资源的许多研究子项目之一。 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。对子项目的主要支持 子项目的首席调查员可能是由其他来源提供的， 包括美国国立卫生研究院的其他来源。为子项目列出的总成本可能 表示该子项目使用的中心基础设施的估计数量， 不是由NCRR赠款提供给次级项目或次级项目工作人员的直接资金。 蜘蛛丝有可能为生物能量学和从防护服到人造韧带和肌腱的各种产品提供新的生物灵感材料。目前的努力集中在通过合成蛋白质来模仿蜘蛛丝。在过去的几年里，我们已经使用重组DNA方法来合成蜘蛛丝蛋白。我们现在有20多种不同的蛋白质，它们的结晶区和非晶区的比例以及这两个区域的蛋白质序列都不同。这些纤维中的大多数已经被纺制成纤维，这些纤维的机械性能范围从那些弹性和韧性值大于牵引丝的纤维到那些值远低于天然丝绸的纤维。这些差异的分子基础不能用目前的方法确定。在这里，我们建议在阿贡国家实验室(ANL)的先进光子源(APS)上使用X射线光纤和显微衍射。具体地说，束线扇区14处的X射线站已经针对生物纤维的衍射进行了优化，并为蜘蛛丝纤维的衍射提供了前所未有的灵敏度。我们建议运行一系列蜘蛛牵引丝标准，包括湿法和干法，以及我们生产蜘蛛丝纤维的转基因蚕茧新系列。14区的X射线衍射(与R.Henning博士合作的14-BM-C-BIOCARS)对于表征这些重要的生物聚合物纤维的结构至关重要。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. Spider silks have the potential to provide new bio-inspired materials for numerous applications in bioenergetics and products ranging from protective clothing to artificial ligaments and tendons. Current efforts are focused on mimicking spider silk through synthetic proteins. In the past several years we have used recombinant DNA methods to generate synthetic spider silk proteins. We now have over 20 different proteins which vary in the ratio of crystalline to amorphous regions as well as the protein sequences in both of those regions. Most of these have been spun into fibers and these fibers range in mechanical properties from those with elasticities and toughness values greater than dragline silk to those with values much less than the natural silks. The molecular basis for these differences cannot be determined using current methods. Here we propose to use x-ray fiber and microdiffraction at Argonne National Labs (ANL) Advanced Photon Source (APS). Specifically the x-ray station at beam-line sector 14 has been optimized for biological fiber diffraction and provided unprecedented sensitivity for spider silk fiber diffraction. We propose to run a series of spider dragline silk standards both wet and dry as well as our new series of transgenic silkworm cocoon producing spider silk fibers. The x-ray diffraction at sector 14 (14-BM-C- BIOCARS with Dr. R. Henning) is critical to characterizing the structure of these important biopolymer fibers.