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Synthetic Spider Silk: an Emerging Biomaterial

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Synthetic Spider Silk: an Emerging Biomaterial

Name:Personal
Cooper, Alyssa R. Role :Text(marcrelator)
creator

Name:Personal
Department of Molecular Biology; Dr. Randy Lewis Role :Text(marcrelator)
contributor

typeOfResource
still image genre
Powerpoint/pdf
Origin Information Place
Laramie, Wyoming
University of Wyoming (keyDate="yes")
2008-04-23

Language:Text
eng

Physical Description

born digital

abstract
Major ampullate (dragline) and flagelliform spider silks are noted for their incredible strength and elasticity, respectively. Previously conducted research has identified the amino acid sequences thought to be responsible for these characteristics in natural spider silk. A linker-polyalanine motif has been found to confer strength to dragline silk whereas a highly repeated GPGGX motif is thought to give elasticity to flagelliform silk. This work focused on the strength/elasticity relationships seen in a series of genetically engineered proteins designed to express varying ratios of these motifs. Our goal was to determine the effects the protein sequence has on the conditions needed for spinning and the effect of both of sequence and spinning conditions on the properties of resulting fibers. A brief outline of the project is as follows: three clones of genetically engineered bacteria have been successfully cultured and induced to express the ‘Y series’ of recombinant silk-like proteins, the protein was obtained from the bacterial cells via cell lysis and purified using affinity chromatography. The purified protein was then lyophilized and used for spinning experiments. note
From - Undergraduate Research Day 2008 - Celebration of Research - Abstracts
Subject
Recombinant proteins--Synthesis; Silk spinning--Research; Microbiological synthesis; Spider webs--Mechanical properties

Related Item:series Title Information
Undergrauate Research Day 2008

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http://digital.uwyo.edu/copyright.html
Record Information languageOfCataloging :Text(ISO639-2B)
English :Code(ISO639-2B)
eng