Zooillogix : Secrets of Black Widow Silk Revealed

Search this blog

Video of the Week

Nose Tentacle Action

Bleiman Brothers Profile

In the wild, Andrew feeds on fish, sponges, small crustaceans, nematode worms and protozoans.

Benny's diet is very specialized, consisting mainly of the interior of Ramy nuts, nectar from the Traveller's Palm tree, some fungi and insect grubs. He is also known to raid coconut plantations, and has been seen eating lychees and mangoes, which are also plantation crops.

Look How Important We Are

View blog authority

Science Blogs - Blog Catalog Blog Directory

Read the super-informative Interview with the Bleiman Brothers

World's Largest Zoo and Shot Glass Collection

Now accepting donations in exchange for recognition and fame on Zooillogix!

baton%20rouge%20zoo%20shotglass%20resized.jpg

Currently Featured: Baton Rouge Zoo generously donated by a ScienceBlogs reader / fellow shot glass collector. A noble hobby.

The List:
Adventure Aquarium
Baton Rouge Zoo
Bronx Zoo
Brookfield Zoo
Cincinnati Zoo
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Florida Aquarium
Georgia Aquarium
Knoxville Zoo
Lincoln Park Zoo
Maritime Center in Norwalk, CT
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Mystic Aquarium
New England Aquarium
New York Aquarium
Newport Aquarium
Philadelphia Zoo
Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies
San Diego Zoo
Sea World San Diego
Shedd Aquarium
Smithsonian National Zoo
South Carolina Aquarium
Tennessee Aquarium
Feed me Seymour!

« Male Whiteleg Shrimp Have Their Period | Main | Sea Monkeys on Steroids »

Secrets of Black Widow Silk Revealed

Category: The Amazing Spiderman Issue #167: Spiderman v. Venom • arachnid • black widow • silk • spider
Posted on: June 19, 2007 2:34 PM, by ableiman

Tougher than steel and Kevlar, the silk of the black widow spider has long been coveted by manufacturing companies, defense contractors and comic-book reading nerds as a possible material of the future.

Scientists have spent years decoding pieces of the spiders' silk making genes, but now Nadia Ayoub and a group of researchers at the University of California-Riverside can create the full proteins and probably spider silk as well.

You want to manufacture my what!?

The silk making genes turn out to be quite long (over 10,000 base-pairs), but with very few introns or "junk DNA" sections that are usually found on genes of this length. The strength of the silk may come from the shape of the proteins, which contain stacked amino acids. The elasticity most likely arises from kinks in the protein, formed by glycine and proline amino acids.

As quoted on NPR's Science Friday (where we discovered this article), Ayoub explains how one might go about manufacturing black widow silk: ,AeuWe can take the silk gene and put it in another organism,,Aeu Ayoub said, such as a tomato plant, ,Aeuthen we can use some kind of artificial spinning apparatus that mimics the spider to spin a fiber from that extracted protein.,Aeu

Possible uses for the spider silk already being discussed are sutures, rope, artificial tendons and even ultra-light body armor.

Scientists also hope the silk will help stop this guy...