College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Sci Rep. 2021 Oct 25;11(1):20980. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-00029-8.
Spider silk is one of the best natural fibers with excellent mechanical properties; however, due to the visual awareness, biting behavior and territory consciousness of spiders, we cannot obtain spider silk by large-scale breeding. Silkworms have a spinning system similar to that of spiders, and the use of transgenic technology in Bombyx mori, which is an ideal reactor for producing spider silk, is routine. In this study, the piggyBac transposon technique was used to achieve specific expression of two putative spider silk genes in the posterior silk glands of silkworms: aggregate spider glue 1 (ASG1) of Trichonephila clavipes (approximately 1.2 kb) and two repetitive units of pyriform spidroin 1 (PySp1) of Argiope argentata (approximately 1.4 kb). Then, two reconstituted spider silk-producing strains, the AG and PA strains, were obtained. Finally, the toughness of the silk fiber was increased by up to 91.5% and the maximum stress was enhanced by 36.9% in PA, and the respective properties in AG were increased by 21.0% and 34.2%. In summary, these two spider genes significantly enhanced the mechanical properties of silk fiber, which can provide a basis for spidroin silk production.
蜘蛛丝是一种具有优异机械性能的最佳天然纤维之一；然而，由于蜘蛛的视觉意识、咬噬行为和领地意识，我们无法通过大规模养殖来获得蜘蛛丝。家蚕具有类似于蜘蛛的纺丝系统，并且使用转基因技术在理想的蜘蛛丝生产反应器——家蚕中进行是常规操作。在这项研究中，我们使用 PiggyBac 转座子技术在蚕的后部丝腺中实现了两种假定的蜘蛛丝基因的特异性表达：Trichonephila clavipes 的聚集蜘蛛胶 1（ASG1）（约 1.2kb）和 Arg iope argentata 的两个重复单元的原丝蛋白 1（PySp1）（约 1.4kb）。然后，我们获得了两个重组蜘蛛丝生产菌株，AG 和 PA 菌株。最后，PA 菌株的丝纤维韧性提高了 91.5%，最大应力提高了 36.9%，AG 菌株的相应性能分别提高了 21.0%和 34.2%。总之，这两个蜘蛛基因显著增强了丝纤维的机械性能，为蜘蛛丝的生产提供了依据。
