Wang Yichen, Lin Yuhang, Luo Yongkang, Zeng Di, He Haibo, Zhao Tianfu
College of Sericulture, Textile and Biomass Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
State Key Laboratory of Resource Insects, Chongqing 400715, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Nov 28;25(23):12793. doi: 10.3390/ijms252312793.
Spider silk is part of a special class of natural protein fibers that have high strength and toughness: these materials have excellent comprehensive properties that are not found in other natural fibers (including silk) or most synthetic fibers. Spider egg case filaments have good hardness, can resist water, can protect spider eggs from external threats, have a significantly high initial modulus and high moisture absorption rate, and are expected to be used as a new generation of environmentally friendly natural polymer fibers and biomaterials. However, spiders are predatory and difficult to rear in large numbers, and it is also difficult to obtain spider egg case filaments in large quantities. Silkworms and spiders have a similar spinning system, and the use of transgenic technology in silkworms can obtain stable and high-yield exogenous gene proteins for a long time, representing an ideal bioreactor for the production of spider silk. In this study, the eukaryotic bioreactor and Bac transposon system were employed to recombinantly introduce the egg case silk protein of (-CYSP1) into the silkworm in the silkworm heavy-chain expression system. The results revealed that the silk glands produced a new type of transgenic silk with a significantly high initial modulus and high moisture absorption. In summary, this study provides an experimental reference for future research on the large-scale production and application of spider egg case filamentous protein, with great application prospects in the development of new environmentally friendly materials.
蜘蛛丝是一类特殊的天然蛋白质纤维的一部分，这类纤维具有高强度和韧性：这些材料具有优异的综合性能，是其他天然纤维（包括蚕丝）或大多数合成纤维所不具备的。蜘蛛卵囊丝具有良好的硬度，能防水，可保护蜘蛛卵免受外部威胁，具有显著较高的初始模量和高吸湿率，有望用作新一代环保型天然聚合物纤维和生物材料。然而，蜘蛛是肉食性的，难以大量饲养，并且也难以大量获取蜘蛛卵囊丝。家蚕和蜘蛛具有相似的吐丝系统，利用转基因技术在家蚕中可长期获得稳定高产的外源基因蛋白，是生产蜘蛛丝的理想生物反应器。在本研究中，采用真核生物反应器和Bac转座子系统，在蚕重链表达系统中将（-CYSP1）的卵囊丝蛋白重组导入家蚕。结果表明，丝腺产生了一种新型转基因丝，其初始模量显著较高且吸湿率高。总之，本研究为蜘蛛卵囊丝状蛋白的大规模生产和应用的未来研究提供了实验参考，在新型环保材料的开发中具有广阔的应用前景。
