title: Synthesis and characterization of multiblock copolymers based on spider dragline silk proteins.
abstract: Spider dragline silk with its superlative tensile properties provides an ideal system to study the relationship between morphology and mechanical properties of a structural protein. Accordingly, we synthesized two hybrid multiblock copolymers by condensing poly(alanine) [(Ala)(5)] blocks of the structural proteins (spidroin MaSp1 and MaSp2) of spider dragline silk with different oligomers of isoprene (2200 and 5000 Da) having reactive end groups. The synthetic multiblock polymer displayed similar secondary structure to that of natural spidroin, the peptide segment forming a beta-sheet structure. These multiblock polymers showed a significant solubility in the component solvents. Moreover, the copolymer which contains the short polyisoprene segment would aggregate into a micellar-like structure, as observed by TEM.
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chuncai
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Boxun
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Leng
authors.forename: Jinrong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Knight
authors.forename: Zhengzhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005349:Fibroins / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D011108:Polymers / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D013112:Spiders / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D011108:Polymers; C086087:spidroin 1; C076815:spidroin 2; C019529:polyalanine; D005349:Fibroins