[ad_1]
Madrid, October 23 (EUROPA PRESS) .- The complex process whereby black widow spiders turn protein into fibers as strong as steel has been unveiled, paving the way for new tissues. equivalent resistance.
Black widows and their parents, originating from temperate climates of North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and Africa. South America produces a variety of bristles with exceptional material properties.
Scientists have long known primary amino acid sequence that form certain proteins of the spider web and have understood the structure of fibers and networks. Previous research had theorized that spider silk proteins were waiting for the spinning process in the form of nanoscale spherical amphiphilic micelles (groups of water-soluble molecules and insoluble molecules) before being routed through the spine. Spider spinning apparatus form silk fibers.
However, when the researchers attempted to replicate this process, they could not create synthetic materials with the strengths and properties of native spider web fibers.
the medium, "says Nathan C. Gianneschi of Northwestern University.What we have not understood well, is what happens at the nanoscale silk glands or spinning channel: the process of storage, transformation and transport involved in the transformation of proteins into proteins. "
Gianneschi is a professor in the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts and Science, Weinberg, and the science departments of Materials and Civil Engineering and Biomedical Engineering from the McCormick School of Engineering. He and Gregory P. Holland, badociate professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry of SDSU, author of more than 40 articles on spider web, are the corresponding authors of the article.
Using pioneering and complementary techniques, such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), technology identical to that used in MRI, in SDSU, followed by electron microscopy in the North. West, the research team was able to more closely observe the protein gland from which the silk fibers originate, revealing a much more complex hierarchical protein set.
This "modified micelle theory" concludes that spider web proteins do not start as simple spherical micelles, as previously thought, but as complex compound micelles. This unique structure is potentially needed to create the awesome fibers of the black widow spider.
"We now know that the bristles of the black widow spider are spun from hierarchical nano-bademblages (200 to 500 nanometers in diameter) of protein stored in the abdomen of the body. spider, instead of a random solution of individual proteins or single spherical particles, "says Holland, whose research is published in this week's digital edition of" Acts of the National Academy of Sciences & # 39; [19659002] If they are duplicated, "practical applications for a material like this are essentially limitless," predicts Holland, and could include high-performance textiles for military, lifeguards, and athletes; construction materials for cable cranes and other constructions; ecological substitutes for plastics; and biomedical applications.
[ad_2]
Source link
