Artificial Bee Silk a Big Step Closer to Reality
ScienceDaily (Mar. 3, 2010) — CSIRO scientist Dr Tara Sutherland and her team have achieved another important milestone in the international quest to artificially produce insect silk.
Honeybee larvae produce silk to reinforce the wax cells in which they pupate and now CSIRO scientists have produced this silk artificially. (Credit: CSIRO)
These threads were as strong as threads drawn from the honeybee silk gland, a significant step towards development of coiled coil silk biomaterials.
"It means that we can now seriously consider the uses to which these biomimetic materials can be put," Dr Sutherland said.
"We used recombinant cells of bacterium E. coli to produce the silk proteins which, under the right conditions, self-assembled into similar structures to those in honeybee silk.
"We already knew that honeybee silk fibres could be hand-drawn from the contents of the silk gland so used this knowledge to hand-draw fibres from a sufficiently concentrated and viscous mixture of the recombinant silk proteins.
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Biomaterials
Volume 31, Issue 9, March 2010, Pages 2695-2700
a CSIRO Entomology, Clunies Ross St, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia
b CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Henry St, Belmont VIC 3216, Australia
c CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Bayview Ave, Clayton VIC 3168, Australia
d CSIRO Molecular and Health Technologies, Bayview Ave, Clayton VIC 3168, Australia
Received 2 September 2009;
accepted 7 December 2009.
Available online 29 December 2009.
Abstract
Transgenic production of silkworm and spider silks as biomaterials has posed intrinsic problems due to the large size and repetitive nature of the silk proteins. In contrast the silk of honeybees (Apis mellifera) is composed of a family of four small and non-repetitive fibrous proteins. We report recombinant production and purification of the four full-length unmodified honeybee silk proteins in Escherichia coli at substantial yields of 0.2–2.5 g/L. Under the correct conditions the recombinant proteins self-assembled to reproduce the native coiled coil structure. Using a simple biomimetic spinning system we could fabricate recombinant silk fibers that replicated the tensile strength of the native material.
Keywords: Biomimetic material; FTIR; Honeybee; Apis mellifera; Recombinant protein; Silk
accepted 7 December 2009.
Available online 29 December 2009.
Abstract
Transgenic production of silkworm and spider silks as biomaterials has posed intrinsic problems due to the large size and repetitive nature of the silk proteins. In contrast the silk of honeybees (Apis mellifera) is composed of a family of four small and non-repetitive fibrous proteins. We report recombinant production and purification of the four full-length unmodified honeybee silk proteins in Escherichia coli at substantial yields of 0.2–2.5 g/L. Under the correct conditions the recombinant proteins self-assembled to reproduce the native coiled coil structure. Using a simple biomimetic spinning system we could fabricate recombinant silk fibers that replicated the tensile strength of the native material.
Keywords: Biomimetic material; FTIR; Honeybee; Apis mellifera; Recombinant protein; Silk
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