Publication Date:
1996-01-05
Description:
The molecular origin of the exceptional mechanical properties of spider silk is unclear. This paper presents solid-state 2H nuclear magnetic resonance data from unoriented, oriented, and supercontracted fibers, indicating that the crystalline fraction of dragline silk consists of two types of alanine-rich regions, one that is highly oriented and one that is poorly oriented and less densely packed. A new model for the molecular-level structure of individual silk molecules and their arrangement in the fibers is proposed. These data suggest that it will be necessary to control the secondary structure of individual polymer molecules in order to obtain optimum properties in bio-inspired polymers.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Simmons, A H -- Michal, C A -- Jelinski, L W -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1996 Jan 5;271(5245):84-7.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Center for Advanced Technology in Biotechnology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8539605" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Alanine/analysis
;
Algorithms
;
Amino Acid Sequence
;
Animals
;
Crystallization
;
Crystallography, X-Ray
;
*Fibroins
;
Glycine/analysis
;
*Insect Proteins
;
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
;
Models, Molecular
;
Molecular Sequence Data
;
Peptides/analysis
;
Protein Conformation
;
Protein Structure, Secondary
;
Proteins/*chemistry
;
Silk
;
Spiders/*chemistry
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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