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

这个子项目是许多利用资源的研究子项目之一 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目的主要支持 而子项目的主要调查员可能是由其他来源提供的， 包括其它NIH来源。 列出的子项目总成本可能 代表子项目使用的中心基础设施的估计数量， 而不是由NCRR赠款提供给子项目或子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工韧带和肌腱的产品中的许多应用提供新的生物启发材料。目前的努力集中在通过合成蛋白质模仿蜘蛛丝。在过去的几年里，我们已经使用重组DNA方法来产生合成蜘蛛丝蛋白。我们现在有超过20种不同的蛋白质，它们在结晶区和无定形区的比例以及这两个区域的蛋白质序列上都有所不同。这些纤维中的大多数已经被纺成纤维，并且这些纤维的机械性能范围从具有比牵引丝大的弹性和韧性值的那些到具有比天然丝小得多的值的那些。这些差异的分子基础无法使用现有方法确定。在这里，我们建议在阿贡国家实验室（ANL）先进光子源（APS）使用X射线光纤和微衍射。 具体地，光束线扇区14处的X射线站已经针对生物纤维衍射进行了优化，并且为蜘蛛丝纤维衍射提供了前所未有的灵敏度。我们建议运行一系列的蜘蛛拖丝标准湿和干，以及我们的新系列的转基因蚕茧生产蜘蛛丝纤维。 X射线衍射在扇区14（14-BM-C- BIOCARS与博士R。Henning）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.