The effect of cobalt on the total proteins, protease activity, free amino acids, alanine amino transferase (ALAT) activity and aspartate amino transferase (AAT) activity were studied. The increase of total protein content in silk gland may be either due to increased efflux or decreased proteolysis activity which might lead to accumulation of protein content. The decrease of protease activity le...

This data article includes size exclusion chromatography data of soluble eADF4(C16), an engineered spider silk variant based on the core domain sequence of the natural dragline silk protein ADF4 of Araneus diadematus, in combination with light scattering; the protein is monomeric before assembly. The assembled mature fibrils were visualized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic f...

We study the self-assembly of genetically engineered protein-based triblock copolymers consisting of a central pH-responsive silk-like middle block (S(H)n, where S(H) is a silk-like octapeptide, (GA)3GH and n is the number of repeats) flanked by hydrophilic random coil outer blocks (C2). Our previous work has already shown that triblocks with very long midblocks (n = 48) self-assemble into long...

Spider silk is a self-assembling biopolymer that outperforms most known materials in terms of its mechanical performance, despite its underlying weak chemical bonding based on H-bonds. While experimental studies have shown that the molecular structure of silk proteins has a direct influence on the stiffness, toughness and failure strength of silk, no molecular-level analysis of the nanostructur...

Silk fibroin (SF) is a protein with bulky hydrophobic domains and can be easily purified as sericin-free silk-based biomaterial. Silk fibroin modified chitosan nanoparticle (SF-CSNP), a biocompatible material, has been widely used as a potential drug delivery system. Our current investigation studied the bio-effects of the SF-CSNP uptake by liver cells. In this experiment, the characterizations...

A long period of silk viability is critical for a good seed setting rate in maize (Zea mays L.), especially for inbred lines and hybrids with a long interval between anthesis and silking. To explore the molecular mechanism of silk viability and its heterosis, three inbred lines with different silk viability characteristics (Xun928, Lx9801, and Zong3) and their two hybrids (Xun928×Zong3 and Lx98...

Spider silks are desirable biomaterials characterized by high tensile strength, elasticity, and biocompatibility. Spiders produce different types of silks for different uses, although dragline silks have been the predominant focus of previous studies. Spider wrapping silk, made of the aciniform protein (AcSp1), has high toughness because of its combination of high elasticity and tensile strengt...

Biomacromolecules have been used as templates to grow hydroxyapatite crystals (HAps) by biomineralization to fabricate mineralized materials for potential application in bone tissue engineering. Silk sericin is a protein with features desirable as a biomaterial, such as increased hydrophilicity and biodegradation. Mineralization of the silk sericin from Antheraea pernyi (A. pernyi) silkworm has...

Glycyland alanyl-tRNA synthetases have been purified from an extract of Bombyx mori posterior silk glands by a procedure that allows for the simultaneous isolation of both enzymes. Glycyl-tRNA synthetase is a dimer of M, = 160,000 consisting of similar or identical subunits, whereas alanyl-tRNA synthetase is a monomer of M, = 110,000 to 116,000. The abundance of these two enzymes in the posteri...