Silkworms Transformed with Chimeric Silkworm/Spider Silk Genes Spin Composite Silk Fibers with Improved Mechanical Properties

Authors

Florence Joe Teulé, University of Wyoming
Yun-Gen Miao, Zhejiang University
Bong-Hee Sohn, University of Notre Dame
Young-Soo Kim, University of Notre Dame
J. Hull, University of Wyoming
Malcolm J. Fraser, University of Notre Dame
Randolph V. Lewis, University of WyomingFollow
Donald L. Jarvis, University of WyomingFollow

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Volume

109

Issue

3

Publisher

National Academy of Sciences

Publication Date

1-7-2012

First Page

923

Last Page

928

Abstract

The development of a spider silk-manufacturing process is of great interest. However, there are serious problems with natural manufacturing through spider farming, and standard recombinant protein production platforms have provided limited progress due to their inability to assemble spider silk proteins into fibers. Thus, we used piggyBac vectors to create transgenic silkworms encoding chimeric silkworm/spider silk proteins. The silk fibers produced by these animals were composite materials that included chimeric silkworm/spider silk proteins integrated in an extremely stable manner. Furthermore, these composite fibers were, on average, tougher than the parental silkworm silk fibers and as tough as native dragline spider silk fibers. These results demonstrate that silkworms can be engineered to manufacture composite silk fibers containing stably integrated spider silk protein sequences, which significantly improve the overall mechanical properties of the parental silkworm silk fibers.

Recommended Citation

(2012) Florence Teulé, Yun-Gen Miao, Bong-Hee Sohn, Young-Soo Kim, J. Joe Hull, Malcolm J. Fraser Jr., Randolph V. Lewis, & Donald L. Jarvis Silkworms Transformed with Chimeric Silkworm/ Spider Silk Genes Spin Composite Silk Fibers with Improved Mechanical Properties, PNAS 109 (3) 923-928