Scale-up and optimization of recombinant spider wrapping silk fibre and yarn production.

蜘蛛丝是已知最坚硬的材料之一，这意味着它在断裂前每单位质量可以吸收比几乎任何其他材料更多的能量。这种丝由单一蛋白质组成，使其完全可生物降解。Rainey和Liu实验室共同开发了一种高效的方法，使用非致病性细菌菌株（大肠杆菌）重组生产蚕丝。除了规避从蜘蛛身上采集丝所固有的挑战外，还有两个额外的好处：（1）E。大肠杆菌对允许在单个氨基酸水平上直接和简单地修饰蛋白质的分子生物学方法非常容易处理;和（2）蛋白质生产可以容易地按比例放大。我们已经开发了约50种不同的重组蜘蛛缠绕丝变体，以及一种新的方法来实现纤维的自动纺制。值得注意的是，我们的自动纺重组丝纤维具有与迄今为止报道的任何合成材料相媲美的机械性能，并且正在接近天然蜘蛛缠绕丝的机械性能。

Spider wrapping silk is one of the toughest known materials, meaning it can absorb more energy per unit mass before breaking than almost any other material. This silk is composed of a single protein, rendering it completely biodegradable. Working together, the Rainey and Liu labs have developed a highly efficient method to produce silk recombinantly using a non-pathogenic strain of bacteria (Escherichia coli). Beyond circumventing the challenges inherent in harvesting silk from spiders, two additional benefits arise: (1) E. coli is extremely tractable to methods of molecular biology that allow direct and straightforward modification of proteins at the level of individual amino acids; and, (2) protein production may readily be scaled up. We have developed ~50 different variations of recombinant spider wrapping silk alongside a novel method to allow automated spinning of fibres. Notably, our automatically spun recombinant silk fibres have mechanical properties rivaling any synthetic material reported to date and are approaching those of native spider wrapping silk.