Evidence that aciniform silk and minor ampullate silk are major constituents of wrapping silk from the black widow

<p>Spider silk is one of the most remarkable materials produced in the natural world and its strength and extensibility are legendary. To date, the majority of studies have been performed on the following silks: dragline, capture spiral, and eggcase silk. The primary goal of this study was to characterize a lesser known silk type, called wrapping (swathing) silk, from <em>Latrodectus hesperus</em>. My research focused on elucidating the fibroins that make up the swathing silk. Perfonning MS/MS analyses on solubilized wrapping silk fibroins digested with trypsin, we demonstrate that a novel fibroin named AcSp !-like is present within wrapping silk. Consistent with this finding, SEM analyses reveal that wrapping silk is a composite material, containing at least three different diameter silk fibers. By using scanning electron micrographs, along with amino acid composition analyses and MS/MS analyses, we demonstrate wrapping material contains the fibroins AcSp1-like, MiSp1-like, MaSp1 and MaSp2. These are the first studies to reveal that minor, major and acinifonn silks are constituents of wrapping material.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (M.S.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - Pacific Access Restricted

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biological Sciences

Year dc:date.available

2008

Author dc:creator

• Reza, Ryan C.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Craig Vierra

• Black widow
• Spiders
• Genetics
• Spider webs
• Silk Composition
• Genetic aspects
• Genetic transcription
• Proteins Analysis
• Biology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Life Sciences

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/692

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarlycommons.pacific.edu:uop_etds-1691