Given their ephemeral nature, the preservation of historic silks can be problematic. Rapid, on-site condition monitoring would offer significant benefits to conservators and museum curators concerned with continued access to collections. In this paper, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) is investigated as a noninvasive approach to the characterization of silk fabrics and particularly for determin...

Silk gland cells undergo multiple endomitotic cell cycles during silkworm larval ontogeny. Our previous study demonstrated that feeding is required for continued endomitosis in the silk gland cells of silkworm larvae. Furthermore, the insulin signaling pathway is closely related to nutritional signals. To investigate whether the insulin signaling pathway is involved in endomitosis in silk gland...

The study aimed to investigate the effects of silk fibroin in a mouse model of dry eye. The experimental dry eye mouse model was developed using more than twelve-weeks-old NOD.B10.H2b mice exposing them to 30-40% ambient humidity and injecting them with scopolamine hydrobromide for 10 days. Tear production and corneal irregularity score were measured by the instillation of phosphate buffered sa...

We extracted silk produced by the larva of the hornet Vespa simillima xanthoptera Cameron from its nest. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis of the extracted hornet silk showed four major components with molecular weights between 35 and 60 kDa. The main amino acid components of the hornet silk protein were Ala (33.5%), Ser (16.9%), Asp (8.5%) and Glu (8...

Submitted for the MAR13 Meeting of The American Physical Society Cob-Weaving Spiders Design Attachment Discs Differently for Locomotion and Prey Capture1 VASAV SAHNI, JARED HARRIS, TODD BLACKLEDGE, ALI DHINOJWALA, The University of Akron — Spiders’ cobwebs ensnare both walking and flying prey. While the scaffolding silk can entangle flying insects, gumfoot silk threads pull walking prey off the...

Evolution has produced some remarkable creatures, of which silk gland is a fascinating organ that exists in a variety of insects and almost half of the 34,000 spider species. The impressive ability to secrete huge amount of pure silk protein, and to store proteins at an extremely high concentration (up to 25%) make the silk gland of Bombyx mori hold great promise to be a cost-effective platform...

Controversial views have been expressed about whether tarantula feet can secrete fine silk threads that could prevent them from falling off smooth vertical surfaces. Two studies have claimed that 'ribbed hairs' on the tarsi of tarantulas produce silk. We examined these ribbed hairs in several tarantula species using light and scanning electron microscopy, and compared them with the silk-produci...

The domesticated silkworm, Bombyx mori Linn., a lepidopteran molecular model and an important economic insect that are emerging as an ideal molecular genetic resource for solving a broad range of biological problems. The silkworm, B. mori produces massive amount of silk proteins during the final stage of larval development. These proteins are stored in the middle silk gland and they are dischar...

Here we present a set of measurements using Differential Scanning Fluorimetry (DSF) as an inexpensive, high throughput screening method to investigate the folding of silk protein molecules as they abandon their first native melt conformation, dehydrate and denature into their final solid filament conformation. Our first data and analyses comparing silks from spiders, mulberry and wild silkworms...

Silk's outstanding mechanical properties and energy efficient solidification mechanisms provide inspiration for biomaterial self-assembly as well as offering a diverse platform of materials suitable for many biotechnology applications. Experiments now reveal that the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori secretes its silk in a practically "unspun" state that retains much of the solvent water and exhibi...