title: Physicochemical Property Variation in Spider Silk: Ecology, Evolution, and Synthetic Production.
abstract: The unique combination of great stiffness, strength, and extensibility makes spider major ampullate (MA) silk desirable for various biomimetic and synthetic applications. Intensive research on the genetics, biochemistry, and biomechanics of this material has facilitated a thorough understanding of its properties at various levels. Nevertheless, methods such as cloning, recombination, and electrospinning have not successfully produced materials with properties as impressive as those of spider silk. It is nevertheless becoming clear that silk properties are a consequence of whole-organism interactions with the environment in addition to genetic expression, gland biochemistry, and spinning processes. Here we assimilate the research done and assess the techniques used to determine distinct forms of spider silk chemical and physical property variability. We suggest that more research should focus on testing hypotheses that explain spider silk property variations in ecological and evolutionary contexts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, Taichung 40704, Taiwan; email: spider@thu.edu.tw.|Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia; email: s.blamires@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: Sean J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Blamires
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Integrated Bioscience Program, The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio 44325; email: tab27@uakron.edu.
authors.forename: Todd A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Blackledge
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, Taichung 40704, Taiwan; email: spider@thu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: I-Min
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Tso
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D047011:Silk / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D013112:Spiders / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D047011:Silk
keywords: MaSp model; biomaterial; chemical properties; hierarchical structure; molecular arrangement; physical properties; spinning processes; supercontraction; tensile properties