Production of a novel silk-like protein from sea anemone and fabrication of wet-spun and electrospun marine-derived silk fibers

Silk-based biomaterials, which for centuries were primarily used as the raw materials for textile fabrics, are now being used in the medical, food and industrial fields because of their extraordinary properties. Their advantageous characteristics include high strength, extensibility, biocompatibility, biodegradability and minimal production of inflammatory reactions. To date, only silkworm silk has been applied in mass-produced technological applications, but spider silk proteins have been extensively studied because of their superior mechanical stability. Here we report the discovery of a novel silk-like protein (named aneroin) from the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis and the successful fabrication of wet-spun and electrospun silk fibers from purified recombinant aneroins. Aneroin fibers have promising mechanical properties, similar to those of recombinant spider silks with molecular weights of similar to 100 kDa and those of natural mammalian tendon collagen. The results of this study demonstrate that aneroin, a new repertoire of silk-like protein found in sea anemones, has potential for use as a novel fibrous biomaterial. Its use would expand the applications of silk in the development of multifunctional and bio-inspired materials.