Critical role of minor eggcase silk component in promoting spidroin chain alignment and strong fiber formation

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (38) ◽  
pp. e2100496118
Author(s):  
Tiantian Fan ◽  
Ruiqi Qin ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Jingxia Wang ◽  
Jing-Song Fan ◽  
...  

Natural spider silk with extraordinary mechanical properties is typically spun from more than one type of spidroin. Although the main components of various spider silks have been widely studied, little is known about the molecular role of the minor silk components in spidroin self-assembly and fiber formation. Here, we show that the minor component of spider eggcase silk, TuSp2, not only accelerates self-assembly but remarkably promotes molecular chain alignment of spidroins upon physical shearing. NMR structure of the repetitive domain of TuSp2 reveals that its dimeric structure with unique charged surface serves as a platform to recruit different domains of the main eggcase component TuSp1. Artificial fiber spun from the complex between TuSp1 and TuSp2 minispidroins exhibits considerably higher strength and Young’s modulus than its native counterpart. These results create a framework for rationally designing silk biomaterials based on distinct roles of silk components.

Nanoscale ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 3805 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron P. Brown ◽  
Jennifer MacLeod ◽  
Heinz Amenitsch ◽  
Fernando Cacho-Nerin ◽  
Harinderjit S. Gill ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (45) ◽  
pp. 11507-11512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas R. Parent ◽  
David Onofrei ◽  
Dian Xu ◽  
Dillan Stengel ◽  
John D. Roehling ◽  
...  

Many natural silks produced by spiders and insects are unique materials in their exceptional toughness and tensile strength, while being lightweight and biodegradable–properties that are currently unparalleled in synthetic materials. Myriad approaches have been attempted to prepare artificial silks from recombinant spider silk spidroins but have each failed to achieve the advantageous properties of the natural material. This is because of an incomplete understanding of the in vivo spidroin-to-fiber spinning process and, particularly, because of a lack of knowledge of the true morphological nature of spidroin nanostructures in the precursor dope solution and the mechanisms by which these nanostructures transform into micrometer-scale silk fibers. Herein we determine the physical form of the natural spidroin precursor nanostructures stored within spider glands that seed the formation of their silks and reveal the fundamental structural transformations that occur during the initial stages of extrusion en route to fiber formation. Using a combination of solution phase diffusion NMR and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM), we reveal direct evidence that the concentrated spidroin proteins are stored in the silk glands of black widow spiders as complex, hierarchical nanoassemblies (∼300 nm diameter) that are composed of micellar subdomains, substructures that themselves are engaged in the initial nanoscale transformations that occur in response to shear. We find that the established micelle theory of silk fiber precursor storage is incomplete and that the first steps toward liquid crystalline organization during silk spinning involve the fibrillization of nanoscale hierarchical micelle subdomains.


2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (S2) ◽  
pp. 170-171
Author(s):  
A Krasnoslobodtsev ◽  
B-H Kim ◽  
Y Lyubchenko

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, August 7–August 11, 2011.


2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (79) ◽  
pp. 10246-10249
Author(s):  
Tianqi He ◽  
Qiuping Zhao ◽  
Qianghong Wu ◽  
Junlei Zhang ◽  
Fen Ran

The mechanism of the reaction of C3H6N6 with NH4VO3 and the critical role of the surfactant in this reaction are investigated, and the high capacitance VN/N, S co-doped carbon materials are prepared by using the above reaction products.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
François-Xavier Cantrelle ◽  
Anne Loyens ◽  
Xavier Trivelli ◽  
Oliver Reimann ◽  
Clément Despres ◽  
...  

Phosphorylation of the neuronal microtubule-associated Tau protein plays a critical role in the aggregation process leading to the formation of insoluble intraneuronal fibrils within Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brains. In recent years, other posttranslational modifications (PTMs) have been highlighted in the regulation of Tau (dys)functions. Among these PTMs, the O-β-linked N-acetylglucosaminylation (O-GlcNAcylation) modulates Tau phosphorylation and aggregation. We here focus on the role of the PHF-1 phospho-epitope of Tau C-terminal domain that is hyperphosphorylated in AD (at pS396/pS404) and encompasses S400 as the major O-GlcNAc site of Tau while two additional O-GlcNAc sites were found in the extreme C-terminus at S412 and S413. Using high resolution NMR spectroscopy, we showed that the O-GlcNAc glycosylation reduces phosphorylation of PHF-1 epitope by GSK3β alone or after priming by CDK2/cyclin A. Furthermore, investigations of the impact of PTMs on local conformation performed in small peptides highlight the role of S404 phosphorylation in inducing helical propensity in the region downstream pS404 that is exacerbated by other phosphorylations of PHF-1 epitope at S396 and S400, or O-GlcNAcylation of S400. Finally, the role of phosphorylation and O-GlcNAcylation of PHF-1 epitope was probed in in-vitro fibrillization assays in which O-GlcNAcylation slows down the rate of fibrillar assembly while GSK3β phosphorylation stimulates aggregation counteracting the effect of glycosylation.


Cells ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dariusz Stępiński ◽  
Maria Kwiatkowska ◽  
Agnieszka Wojtczak ◽  
Justyna Teresa Polit ◽  
Eva Domínguez ◽  
...  

The cuticle commonly appears as a continuous lipophilic layer located at the outer epidermal cell walls of land plants. Cutin and waxes are its main components. Two methods for cutin synthesis are considered in plants. One that is based on enzymatic biosynthesis, in which cutin synthase (CUS) is involved, is well-known and commonly accepted. The other assumes the participation of specific nanostructures, cutinsomes, which are formed in physicochemical self-assembly processes from cutin precursors without enzyme involvement. Cutinsomes are formed in ground cytoplasm or, in some species, in specific cytoplasmic domains, lipotubuloid metabolons (LMs), and are most probably translocated via microtubules toward the cuticle-covered cell wall. Cutinsomes may additionally serve as platforms transporting cuticular enzymes. Presumably, cutinsomes enrich the cuticle in branched and cross-linked esterified polyhydroxy fatty acid oligomers, while CUS1 can provide both linear chains and branching cutin oligomers. These two systems of cuticle formation seem to co-operate on the surface of aboveground organs, as well as in the embryo and seed coat epidermis. This review focuses on the role that cutinsomes play in cuticle biosynthesis in S. lycopersicum, O. umbellatum and A. thaliana, which have been studied so far; however, these nanoparticles may be commonly involved in this process in different plants.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanyuan Dou ◽  
Zhen-Pei Wang ◽  
Wenqian He ◽  
Tianjiao Jia ◽  
Zhuangjian Liu ◽  
...  

AbstractSpider silks show unique combinations of strength, toughness, extensibility, and energy absorption. To date, it has been difficult to obtain spider silk-like mechanical properties using non-protein approaches. Here, we report on an artificial spider silk produced by the water-evaporation-induced self-assembly of hydrogel fibre made from polyacrylic acid and silica nanoparticles. The artificial spider silk consists of hierarchical core-sheath structured hydrogel fibres, which are reinforced by ion doping and twist insertion. The fibre exhibits a tensile strength of 895 MPa and a stretchability of 44.3%, achieving mechanical properties comparable to spider silk. The material also presents a high toughness of 370 MJ m−3 and a damping capacity of 95%. The hydrogel fibre shows only ~1/9 of the impact force of cotton yarn with negligible rebound when used for impact reduction applications. This work opens an avenue towards the fabrication of artificial spider silk with applications in kinetic energy buffering and shock-absorbing.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document