The gospel of "artificial spider silk" was born in textile science and technology circles! Spider-Ma
In nature, spider silk is a magical material that can make super-strong fabrics. So why didn't anyone think of building a & ldquo; spider silk Farm & rdquo? Perhaps spiders are too hard to achieve.
Development of Science and Technology & Middot; Artificial Spider Silk
In order to solve this problem, many laboratories have tried artificial spider silk, and even considered transferring spider DNA into silkworms.
The good news is that after unremitting efforts, scientists have finally created a new machine, which brings us a step closer to the future textile materials.
The spider's secret is to secrete a protein solution through a long narrow tube through which pressure will bind it together to make spider silk fibers.
Advantages and limitations
According to a recent study published in the Journal Natural Chemistry and Biology, researchers have designed an identical machine that combines two natural spider silk proteins.
With this machine, researchers have produced the strongest artificial spider silk ever. Its properties are almost the same as real spider silk. It is biodegradable and its manufacturing cost is quite low.
For thousands of years, silk fibers have been extracted through silkworm rearing, which is expected to change in the future.
However, the progress made today does not mean that mass production can be started very quickly, because only one machine has been built, and scientists have only spun about 1 km of material. Therefore, large-scale production still needs to wait.
Researchers at the Brazilian Institute of Gene Resources and Biotechnology have recently successfully produced artificial spider silk in the laboratory. They believe it is a scientific achievement with high commercial value.
According to the project researchers, the spider silk protein needed for the experiment was synthesized in the laboratory with the help of E. coli.
Scientists diluted Escherichia coli into liquid media to synthesize spider silk proteins with specific DNA sequences, and then used a special syringe to obtain protein fibers.
The diameter of artificial spider silk made by this method is about 40 nanometers, 10 to 20 times thicker than that of natural spider silk. In the future, researchers will also test the ductility and toughness of the artificial spider silk.
Biotechnology expert Elibio, who led the experiment, said that the artificial spider silk not only has the advantages of good elasticity and toughness, but also can be biodegraded, and is expected to be used in textile materials, medical treatment and aircraft and ship manufacturing in the future.
