Major ampullate (MA) dragline silk supports spider orb webs, combining strength and extensibility in the toughest biomaterial. MA silk evolved ~376 MYA and identifying how evolutionary changes in proteins influenced silk mechanics is crucial for biomimetics, but is hindered by high spinning plasticity. We use supercontraction to remove that variation and characterize MA silk across the spider p...

Introduction Scaffolds fabricated from silk have shown good osteoinduction. However, the mechanical properties were insufficient to match native bone. We previously investigated the effects of mineral incorporation (by coating as well as embedding into the silk phase) as a method to enhance mechanical properties of porous silk scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Based on encouraging results ...

Since thousands of years humans have utilized insect silks for their own benefit and comfort. The most famous example is the use of reeled silkworm silk from Bombyx mori to produce textiles. In contrast, despite the more promising properties of their silk, spiders have not been domesticated for large-scale or even industrial applications, since farming the spiders is not commercially viable due...

Spider capture silk is a natural material that outperforms almost any synthetic material in its combination of strength and elasticity. The structure of this remarkable material is still largely unknown, because spider-silk proteins have not been crystallized. Capture silk is the sticky spiral in the webs of orb-weaving spiders. Here we are investigating specifically the capture spiral threads ...

Emerging line research showed that silk nanoparticles (NPs) have toxicity on the fibroblastand Huvec cells without any toxicity recognized mechanisms. Recently, it suggested peripheralarterial disease confounds almost eight million Americans. Also, due to the main effect offibroblast in a production of extracellular matrix (ECM), adhesive molecules, glycoproteinsand various cytokines, it decide...

Spider silk is a promising biomaterial with impressive performance. However, some spider silks also 'supercontract' when exposed to water, shrinking by up to ∼50% in length. Supercontraction may provide a critical mechanism to tailor silk properties, both for future synthetic silk production and by the spiders themselves. Several hypotheses are proposed for the mechanism and function of superco...

Among a myriad of spider web geometries, the orb web presents a fascinating, exquisite example in architecture and evolution. Its structural component, the silk protein, is an exemplary natural material because its superior properties stem intrinsically from the synergistic cooperativity of hierarchically-organized components, rather than from the particular properties of the building blocks th...

Spider silk is strong and extensible but still biodegradable and well tolerated when implanted, making it the ultimate biomaterial. Shortcomings that arise in replicating spider silk are due to the use of recombinant spider silk proteins (spidroins) that lack native domains, the use of denaturing conditions under purification and spinning and the fact that the understanding of how spiders contr...

Spiders' cobwebs ensnare both walking and flying prey. While the scaffolding silk can entangle flying insects, gumfoot silk threads pull walking prey off the ground and into the web. Therefore, scaffolding silk needs to withstand the impact of the prey, whereas gumfoot silk needs to easily detach from the substrate when contacted by prey. Here we show that spiders accomplish these divergent dem...

The evolutionary diversification of spiders is attributed to spectacular innovations in silk. Spiders are unique in synthesizing many different kinds of silk, and using silk for a variety of ecological functions throughout their lives, particularly to make prey-catching webs. Here, we construct a broad higher-level phylogeny of spiders combining molecular data with traditional morphological and...