Protein  families, natural history and biotechnological aspects of spider silk.
Spiders  are exceptionally diverse and abundant organisms in terrestrial ecosystems and  their evolutionary success is certainly related to their capacity to produce  different types of silks during their life cycle, making a specialized use on  each of them. Presenting particularly tandemly arranged amino acid repeats,  silk proteins (spidroins) have mechanical properties superior to most synthetic  or natural high-performance fibers, which makes them very promising for  biotechnology industry, with putative applications in the production of new  biomaterials. During the evolution of spider species, complex behaviors of web  production and usage have been coupled with anatomical specialization of  spinning glands. Spiders retaining ancestral characters, such as the ones  belonging to the Mygalomorph group, present simpler sorts of webs used mainly  to build burrows and egg sacs, and their silks are produced by globular  undifferentiated spinning glands. In contrast, Araneomorphae spiders have a  complex spinning apparatus, presenting up to seven morphologically distinct  glands, capable to produce a more complex set of silk polymers with different  degrees of rigidness and elasticity associated with distinct behaviors. Aiming  to provide a discussion involving a number of spider silks' biological aspects,  in this review we present descriptions of members from each family of spidroin  identified from five spider species of the Brazilian biodiversity, and an  evolutionary study of them in correlation with the anatomical specialization of  glands and spider's spinning behaviors. Due to the biotechnological importance  of spider silks for the production of new biomaterials, we also discuss about  the new possible technical and biomedical applications of spider silks and the  current status of it.
Embrapa Amazônia Ocidental, Manaus, AM, Brasil. daniela.bittencourt@cpaa.embrapa.br
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Oliveira
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Prosdocimi
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D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D001709:Biotechnology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005349:Fibroins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family
D005349:Fibroins