Journal
BIOMACROMOLECULES
Volume 18, Issue 4, Pages 1350-1355Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acs.biomac.7b00086
Keywords
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Funding
- Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) Impulsing Paradigm Change through Disruptive Technologies Program (ImPACT)
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The spider silk spinning process converts spidroins from an aqueous form to a tough fiber. This spinning process has been investigated by numerous researchers, and micelles or liquid crystals of spidroins have been reported to form silk fibers, which are bundles of silk microfibrils. However, the formation process of silk microfibrils has not been clarified previously. Here, we report that silk microfibrils are generated through the formation, homogenization, and linkage of liquid crystalline granules without micelle-like structures. Heterogeneous granules on the submicron to micron scale were observed in the storage sac, whereas homogeneous granules with diameters of approximately 100 nm were aligned along the tapering duct. In the spun fibers, the homogeneous granules were connected along the fiber axis. This is the first clear description of the formation of granule-based microfibrils in the spinning process, which is the key conversion process leading to the unique hierarchical structure of spider dragline.
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