Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
3-30-2017
Funder
Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR)
Abstract
Spider silks have long been a focus of research due to their remarkable mechanical properties including strength, toughness and elasticity. Moreover, biodegradability and biocompatibility of spider silks make them beneficial to use in biomedical applications. Spiders cannot be farmed because of their territorial and cannibalistic nature. Hence, production of recombinant spider silks is the only feasible solution for large scale production Large scale production is still challenging due to the small recombinant protein size, low yield and low water solubility of bio-synthetic spider silk. The current study reports our progress as well as evolution of effective protocol for large scale bio-synthetic production of spider silk protein in E. coli. Our main spidersilk protein we seek to produce and purify in a large scale is MaSp2. Spider dragline silk is primarily composed of proteins called major ampullate spidroins (MaSps) that consist of a large repeat array flanked by nonrepetitive N- and C- terminal domains. All MaSp genes are co-expressed in the major ampullate gland of Nephila Clavipes.
Recommended Citation
Oliveira, Paula F.; Christiansen, David; Ghazi, Amir; Jones, Justin; and Lewis, Randolph V., "Large Scale Production of Spider Silk Protein in E. coli" (2017). Biology Posters. Paper 139.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/biology_posters/139