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Spider Silk Fibers Spun from Soluble Recombinant Silk Produced in Mammalian Cells A. Lazaris, S. Arcidiacono, Y. Huang, J. Zhou, F. Duguay, N. Chretien, E.A. Welch, J.W. Soares, C.N. Karatzas Science Magazine, Volume 295 A review article by: Tracy Gomez April 16, 2002 Spider Silk Fibers Spun from Soluble Recombinant Silk Produced in Mammalian Cells One environmentally important animal on earth is well known for its ability to physically produce a fiber that it uses to catch prey, protect itself from danger, and then easily recycle it over and over. None other than the household spider can produce a fiber which is stronger than Kevlar and stretches better than nylon. Spider silk has long been admired by material scientists for its unique combination of high-performance properties including toughness, strength, lightness and biodegradability. Spiders produce many types of this silk which it secretes from highly specialized silk glands. The strongest of the silks studied is called dragline, with uses as a safety line and framework of a web. The properties of this silk have had entrepreneurs and researchers searching for a way to make this substance useful to us for over a century. Although this feat has never been reached so far the fascinating uses that spiders enjoy from their silk may soon be available to us. Molecular biologists at Nexia Biotechnologies in Canada have successfully spliced dragline silk genes into mammalian cells and have shown for the first time that harvested recombinant proteins can be spun into strong, lightweight fibers. The researchers used two species of orb-weaver spinning spiders, Araneus diadematus and Nephila clavipes, where they isolated partial cDNA clones which encode for two protein components of the dragline silk, ADF-3, ADF-4, and MaSpI, MaSpII respectively. The spiders encode proteins from these genes containing repetitive sequences which aid in its mechanical and elasticity properties. Two mammalian cell lines where used in the study as expression systems. One cell line consisted of bovine mammary epithelial alveolar cells which are known to excel at secreting proteins, and the second was cells from the kidneys of baby hamsters (BHK) which are known to produce large volumes of recombinant proteins.
Approximate Word count = 1367
Approximate Pages = 5.5
(250 words per page double spaced)
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