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Nanostructure Design pp 3–14Cite as

Molecular Design of Performance Proteins With Repetitive Sequences

Recombinant Flagelliform Spider Silk as Basis for Biomaterials

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Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology™ ((MIMB,volume 474))

Summary

Most performance proteins responsible for the mechanical stability of cells and organisms reveal highly repetitive sequences. Mimicking such performance proteins is of high interest for the design of nanostructured biomaterials. In this article, flagelliform silk is exemplary introduced to describe a general principle for designing genes of repetitive performance proteins for recombinant expression in Escherichia coli . In the first step, repeating amino acid sequence motifs are reversely transcripted into DNA cassettes, which can in a second step be seamlessly ligated, yielding a designed gene. Recombinant expression thereof leads to proteins mimicking the natural ones. The recombinant proteins can be assembled into nanostructured materials in a controlled manner, allowing their use in several applications.

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Acknowledgments

We thank members of the Fiberlab and Lasse Reefschläger for critical comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from DFG (SCHE 603/4-2) and ARO (W911NF-06-1-0451).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Chemie, Lehrstuhl Biotechnologie, TUM, Garching, Germany

    Charlotte Vendrely & Christian Ackerschott

  2. Lehrstuhl Biomaterialien, Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, 95440, Germany

    Lin Römer & Thomas Scheibel

Authors
  1. Charlotte Vendrely
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  2. Christian Ackerschott
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  3. Lin Römer
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  4. Thomas Scheibel
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Biology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Ehud Gazit (Faculty of Life Science) (Faculty of Life Science)

  2. Center for Cancer Research Nanobiology Program, SAIC-Frederick National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD

    Ruth Nussinov

  3. Department of Human Genetics Medical School, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Ruth Nussinov

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© 2008 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science + Business Media, LLC

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Vendrely, C., Ackerschott, C., Römer, L., Scheibel, T. (2008). Molecular Design of Performance Proteins With Repetitive Sequences. In: Gazit, E., Nussinov, R. (eds) Nanostructure Design. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 474. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-480-3_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-480-3_1

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-934115-35-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-480-3

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