Greving, I., Terry, A.E., Holland, C. orcid.org/0000-0003-0913-2221 et al. (4 more authors) (2020) Structural diversity of native Major Ampullate, Minor Ampullate, Cylindriform, and Flagelliform silk proteins in solution. Biomacromolecules, 21 (8). pp. 3387-3393. ISSN 1525-7797
Abstract
The foundations of silk spinning, the structure, storage, and activation of silk proteins, remain highly debated. By combining solution small-angle neutron and X-ray scattering (SANS and SAXS) alongside circular dichroism (CD), we reveal a shape anisotropy of the four principal native spider silk feedstocks from Nephila edulis. We show that these proteins behave in solution like elongated semiflexible polymers with locally rigid sections. We demonstrated that minor ampullate and cylindriform proteins adopt a monomeric conformation, while major ampullate and flagelliform proteins have a preference for dimerization. From an evolutionary perspective, we propose that such dimerization arose to help the processing of disordered silk proteins. Collectively, our results provide insights into the molecular-scale processing of silk, uncovering a degree of evolutionary convergence in protein structures and chemistry that supports the macroscale micellar/pseudo liquid crystalline spinning mechanisms proposed by the community.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 American Chemical Society. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited. (http://pubs.acs.org/page/policy/authorchoice_ccby_termsofuse.html) |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL EP/K005693/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 09 Jul 2020 11:23 |
Last Modified: | 20 Jan 2022 10:09 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Chemical Society (ACS) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1021/acs.biomac.0c00819 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:163073 |