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Spider silk proteins: recent advances in recombinant production, structure–function relationships and biomedical applications

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Abstract

Spider dragline silk is an outstanding material made up of unique proteins—spidroins. Analysis of the amino acid sequences of full-length spidroins reveals a tripartite composition: an N-terminal non-repetitive domain, a highly repetitive central part composed of approximately 100 polyalanine/glycine rich co-segments and a C-terminal non-repetitive domain. Recent molecular data on the terminal domains suggest that these have different functions. The composite nature of spidroins allows for recombinant production of individual and combined regions. Miniaturized spidroins designed by linking the terminal domains with a limited number of repetitive segments recapitulate the properties of native spidroins to a surprisingly large extent, provided that they are produced and isolated in a manner that retains water solubility until fibre formation is triggered. Biocompatibility studies in cell culture or in vivo of native and recombinant spider silk indicate that they are surprisingly well tolerated, suggesting that recombinant spider silk has potential for biomedical applications.

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Abbreviations

ADF:

Araneus diadematus fibroin

LPS:

Lipopolysaccharide

MaSp:

Major ampullate spidroin

Spidroin:

Spider silk protein

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Prof. Wilhelm Engström for introducing spidroin research at our department. Financial support from the Swedish Research Council, Formas, Vinnova, Spiber Technologies AB, and the EU Commission is gratefully acknowledged.

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  1. Department of Anatomy Physiology and Biochemistry, The Biomedical Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 751-23, Uppsala, Sweden

    Anna Rising, Mona Widhe, Jan Johansson & My Hedhammar

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  1. Anna Rising
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  2. Mona Widhe
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  3. Jan Johansson
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Correspondence to Jan Johansson.

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Rising, A., Widhe, M., Johansson, J. et al. Spider silk proteins: recent advances in recombinant production, structure–function relationships and biomedical applications. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 68, 169–184 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-010-0462-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-010-0462-z

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