Bio Focus: Hierarchical structure of spider dragline silk prevents spinning

Goldman, Abby

doi:10.1557/mrs.2017.195

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Spider silk is a protein fiber, which is extremely strong and extraordinarily flexible [1][2][3][4], its hierarchical structure with an approximate 3-fold symmetry plays the key role in the nature fiber's excellent properties [5,6]. There is a very long extrusion duct to convert the protein into the thousands of spinnerets, the duct serves as a molecular switch to control fiber assembly [7,8], additionally, the pH value changes along the duct, which is another factor to control the self-assembly of spider silk proteins [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-assembly of macromolecules in a long and narrow tube

Tian

2018

THERM SCI

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Many nature materials have hierarchical structure, and its last cascade is always on a molecule scale, e. g., double-stranded DNA, making the hierarchy effective with minimal building blocks. Now artificial hierarchy can begin with a nanoscale level to embody the material with remarkable and fascinating properties which can be never achieved using non-hierarchical structure. A strong desire to fabricate some biomimicking hierarchies from a molecule level has been stimulating scientists. Herein we show that molecular structure can be easily controlled by a long and narrow tube, and self-assembly of macromolecules can be achieved to improve its crystallinity with plenty of excellent properties. We anticipate this paper to be a starting point for more sophisticated fabrication of fibers with self-assembly of macromolecules.

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