title: Artificial egg stalks made of a recombinantly produced lacewing silk protein.
abstract: Rigid threads: Lacewings protect their eggs from predators by laying them on small stalks (see picture). The stalks have good mechanical properties and, unlike most other silks, a cross β structure. An artificial egg stalk was produced using a designed recombinant variant of a sequenced lacewing egg stalk protein, and it attained 90 % of the tensile strength of a natural egg stalk.
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl Biomaterialien, Universität Bayreuth, Universitätsstrasse 30, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bauer
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Scheibel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D007313:Insecta / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D047011:Silk / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013718:Tensile Strength
chemical_list: D019476:Insect Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D047011:Silk