Nanoscale Structural Features in Major Ampullate Spider Silk

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• 作者：Christian Riekel ; Manfred Burghammer ; Thomas G. Dane ; Claudio Ferrero ; Martin Rosenthal
• 刊名：Biomacromolecules
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 9, 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：18
• 期：1
• 页码：231-241
• 全文大小：830K
• ISSN：1526-4602

文摘

Spider major ampullate silk is often schematically represented as a two-phase material composed of crystalline nanodomains in an amorphous matrix. Here we are interested in revealing its more complex nanoscale organization by probing Argiope bruennichi dragline-type fibers using scanning X-ray nanodiffraction. This allows resolving transversal structural features such as an about 1 μm skin layer composed of around 100 nm diameter nanofibrils serving presumably as an elastic sheath. The core consists of a composite of several nm size crystalline nanodomains with poly(l-alanine) microstructure, embedded in a polypeptide network with short-range order. Stacks of nanodomains separated by less ordered nanosegments form nanofibrils with a periodic axial density modulation which is particularly sensitive to radiation damage. The precipitation of larger β-type nanocrystallites in the outer core–shell is attributed to MaSp1 protein molecules.