Final Report: Rapid Characterization of Spider Silk Genes via Exon Capture

Number of Papers published in peer-reviewed journals: Number of Papers published in non peer-reviewed journals: Final Report: Rapid Characterization of Spider Silk Genes via Exon Capture Report Title Spider silks are high-performance materials with an array of potential military and civilian applications. As such, there is persistent demand for the mass production of silks, which requires knowledge of the underlying silk gene sequences. Spidroins (spider fibroins), the most abundant proteins in silks, have repetitive internal regions flanked by non-repetitive aminoand carboxyl-terminal regions. The terminal regions are integral for silk processing and fiber formation, while the repetitive regions are integral for fiber self-assembly and mechanical properties. Full characterization of spidroin genes has been challenging due to their great lengths and inherent 3’ bias of cDNA-based methods. In this STIR project, new target genome capture and bioinformatic approaches were utilized to rapidly and economically determine genetic blueprints for spider silks. A silk gene bait set was developed and sixteen genomic capture libraries, representing six species, were constructed and sequenced. The results dramatically expand knowledge of spidroin genes, especially for the less well-documented aminoterminal coding regions, and also non-spidroin silk genes, particularly the aggregate silk glues. Many novel silk sequences were obtained, showing the feasibility of target capture for gene discovery. The new silk gene sequences are highly relevant for understanding structure/function of spider silk proteins and recombinant silk production. (a) Papers published in peer-reviewed journals (N/A for none) Enter List of papers submitted or published that acknowledge ARO support from the start of the project to the date of this printing. List the papers, including journal references, in the following categories: (b) Papers published in non-peer-reviewed journals (N/A for none) (c) Presentations Received Paper