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Biomimetic spinning of artificial spider silk from a chimeric minispidroin

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Abstract

Herein we present a chimeric recombinant spider silk protein (spidroin) whose aqueous solubility equals that of native spider silk dope and a spinning device that is based solely on aqueous buffers, shear forces and lowered pH. The process recapitulates the complex molecular mechanisms that dictate native spider silk spinning and is highly efficient; spidroin from one liter of bacterial shake-flask culture is enough to spin a kilometer of the hitherto toughest as-spun artificial spider silk fiber.

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Figure 1: Biomimetic spinning of artificial spider silk.
Figure 2: pH-dependent assembly and spinning of NT2RepCT.

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Acknowledgements

We thank L. Holm, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences for help with photography, as well as S. Takeuchi and A. Hsiao at the University of Tokyo for introduction into the use of pulled glass capillaries for fiber formation. We also thank F. Palm, Uppsala University, for lending us a microelectrode puller. Q.J. was supported by a stipend from the Chinese Scholarship Council. The Swedish Research Council (grants no. 2014-2408 and 2014-10371 to A.R. and J.J.), CIMED (to J.J.) and FORMAS (2015-629 to A.R.) supported this work.

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Author notes

  1. Marlene Andersson and Qiupin Jia: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden

    Marlene Andersson, Jan Johansson & Anna Rising

  2. Institute of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Donghua University, Shanghai, P.R. China

    Qiupin Jia & Qing Meng

  3. ETSI de Caminos and Center for Biomedical Technology, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Ana Abella, Xiau-Yeen Lee & Gustavo R Plaza

  4. Department of Chemistry, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Michael Landreh & Carol V Robinson

  5. Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Pasi Purhonen & Hans Hebert

  6. School of Technology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Pasi Purhonen & Hans Hebert

  7. Department of Engineering Sciences, SciLifeLab, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Maria Tenje

  8. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Maria Tenje

  9. Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Jan Johansson & Anna Rising

Authors
  1. Marlene Andersson
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  2. Qiupin Jia
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  3. Ana Abella
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  4. Xiau-Yeen Lee
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  5. Michael Landreh
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  6. Pasi Purhonen
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  7. Hans Hebert
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  8. Maria Tenje
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  9. Carol V Robinson
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  10. Qing Meng
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  11. Gustavo R Plaza
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  12. Jan Johansson
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  13. Anna Rising
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Contributions

M.A., Q.J., A.A., X.-Y.L., M.L., and P.P. performed the experiments; A.R., J.J., G.R.P., Q.M., C.V.R., M.T., H.H. supplied equipment and expertise; A.R. and J.J. conceived and designed the study; M.A., A.R. and J.J. wrote the manuscript. All authors edited the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jan Johansson or Anna Rising.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Results, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 and Supplementary Figures 1–7. (PDF 819 kb)

Supplementary Table

Source data for Supplementary Figure 7. (XLSX 135 kb)

41589_2017_BFnchembio2269_MOESM590_ESM.mov

Spinning NT2RepCT in a biomimetic spinning device. Fibers form instantaneously as the highly concentrated spinning dope hits the pH 5.0 aqueous buffer. (MOV 23001 kb)

As-spun NT2RepCT fibers can be rolled up in a dry state on a frame. (MOV 11953 kb)

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Andersson, M., Jia, Q., Abella, A. et al. Biomimetic spinning of artificial spider silk from a chimeric minispidroin. Nat Chem Biol 13, 262–264 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2269

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2269

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