title: Unexpected behavior of irradiated spider silk links conformational freedom to mechanical performance
creator: Perea Abarca, Gracia Belén
creator: Solanas, Concepción
creator: Plaza Baonza, Gustavo Ramón
creator: Guinea Tortuero, Gustavo V.
creator: Jorge, Inmaculada
creator: Vázquez Minguela, Jesús
creator: Pérez Mateos, Jorge
creator: Marí Buyé, Nuria
creator: Elices Calafat, Manuel
creator: Pérez Rigueiro, José
subject: Medicine
description: Silk fibers from Argiope trifasciata and Nephila inaurata orb-web weaving spiders were UV irradiated to modify the molecular weight of the constituent proteins. Fibers were characterized either as forcibly silked or after being subjected to maximum supercontraction. The effect of irradiation on supercontraction was also studied, both in terms of the percentage of supercontraction and the tensile properties exhibited by irradiated and subsequently supercontracted fibers. The effects of UV exposure at the molecular level were assessed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. It is shown that UV-irradiated fibers show a steady decrease in their main tensile parameters, most notably, tensile strength and strain. The combination of the mechanical and biochemical data suggests that the restricted conformational freedom of the proteins after UV irradiation is critical in the reduction of these properties. Consequently, an adequate topological organization of the protein chains emerges as a critical design principle in the performance of spider silk.
rights: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/
date: 2015-05
type: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
type: Article
source: Soft Matter, ISSN 1744-683X, 2015-05, Vol. 11, No. 24
type: PeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
language: eng
relation: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2015/SM/C5SM00395D#!divAbstract
relation: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MINECO//MAT2012-38412-C02-01
relation: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/CAM//S2011%2FBMD-2460
rights: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
relation: info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1039/c5sm00395d
identifier: https://oa.upm.es/41139/