Synthesis and characterization of multiblock copolymers based on spider dragline silk proteins.
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.
Zhou
Chuncai
C
The Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, P. R. China.
Leng
Boxun
B
Yao
Jinrong
J
Qian
Jie
J
Chen
Xin
X
Zhou
Ping
P
Knight
David P
DP
Shao
Zhengzhong
Z
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
D010455:Peptides; D011108:Polymers; C086087:spidroin 1; C076815:spidroin 2; C019529:polyalanine; D005349:Fibroins