Biomimetics Challenge for the Toughest Fiber: Spider Silk Protein

Spider dragline silk is the strongest fiber regarding tensile strength and toughness outperforming all other natural and manmade materials. In order to mimic spider's ingenuity, the molecular details of the assembly and the way how the fiber is secreted without entanglement need be understood. A typical spider silk protein, MaSp1, contains 3129 amino acid residues and coded by a huge intron-less gene. The central part is comprised of intricate patterns of four types of repeats, while N and C-terminal regions are conserved among other spider silk proteins and considered to be crucial for the secretion and/or assembly. In this video, dimeric structures of N-terminal domain (3LR2.pdb) and C-terminal domain (2KHM.pdb), and the entire sequence of MaSp1 are shown.

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Science & Technology

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• gene
• music
• video
• spider
• dragline
• silk
• protein
• Nobuo
• Munakata
• Max/MSP/Jitter
• Absynth

[quiettornado1970]

If this comes into relaity, they can make bullet proof vest as thin as a normal jacket or even a t-shirt can be bullet proof shirt. Or make it to power ranger clothing for fighting purposes. The usage is endless.