High-strength and ultra-tough whole spider silk fibers spun from transgenic silkworms

To advance ecological civilization, developing sustainable, eco-friendly high-strength and ultra-tough alternatives to non-sustainable synthetic fibers, such as nylon, is crucial. This necessitates a deeply scientific understanding of the fundamental determinants fiber strength toughness, well overcoming engineering challenges for cost-effective, large-scale production high-performance silk fibers. Inspired by mechanical properties polyamide including nylon Kevlar, we employed CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene editing successfully synthesize whole spider fibers from transgenic silkworms. These exhibited impressive tensile (1,299 MPa) toughness (319 MJ/m3), surpassing Kevlar’s 6-fold. Thus, they offer promising potential sustainable commercial Furthermore, our research provides valuable insights into essence strength, challenging conventional notion that these are contradictory. findings have significant implications guiding simultaneously possess high ultra-toughness.