title: β-Sheet nanocrystalline domains formed from phosphorylated serine-rich motifs in caddisfly larval silk: a solid state NMR and XRD study.
abstract: Adhesive silks spun by aquatic caddisfly (order Trichoptera) larvae are used to build both intricate protective shelters and food harvesting nets underwater. In this study, we use (13)C and (31)P solid-state NMR and wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) as tools to elucidate molecular protein structure of caddisfly larval silk from the species Hesperophylax consimilis . Caddisfly larval silk is a fibroin protein based biopolymer containing mostly repetitive amino acid motifs. NMR and X-ray results provide strong supporting evidence for a structural model in which phosphorylated serine repeats (pSX)4 complex with divalent cations Ca(2+) and Mg(2+) to form rigid nanocrystalline β-sheet structures in caddisfly silk. (13)C NMR data suggests that both phosphorylated serine and neighboring valine residues exist in a β-sheet conformation while glycine and leucine residues common in GGX repeats likely reside in random coil conformations. Additionally, (31)P chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) analysis indicates that the phosphates on phosphoserine residues are doubly ionized, and are charge-stabilized by divalent cations. Positively charged arginine side chains also likely play a role in charge stabilization. Finally, WAXD results finds that the silk is at least 7-8% crystalline, with β-sheet interplane spacings of 3.7 and 4.5 Å.
authors: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1604, USA. bennettaddison@gmail.com
authors: J Bennett
authors: JB
authors: Addison
authors: Nicholas N
authors: NN
authors: Ashton
authors: Warner S
authors: WS
authors: Weber
authors: Russell J
authors: RJ
authors: Stewart
authors: Gregory P
authors: GP
authors: Holland
authors: Jeffery L
authors: JL
authors: Yarger
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000818:Animals; D007313:Insecta; D007814:Larva; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D015394:Molecular Structure; D053758:Nanoparticles; D010766:Phosphorylation; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D047011:Silk / Q000737:chemistry*; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D047011:Silk