SPIDER SILK

Made by Ananya Singh and Pranjal Nigam

FS assignment
FP-TECH
Guided by:
Dr. Senthil Kumar Venkatalu
BATCH 7
Associate Professor
NIFT, New Delhi
 Why we have chosen
this fibre?
• We were really fascinated by the
physical and mechanical properties of
spider silk like excellent strength,
durability, elasticity etc
• It is biodegradable and biocompatible
which means that it is environment
friendly and cost efficient
• The fact that was most impressive for
us was that no spiders are harmed
during the production process and has
more promising properties than silk
from silkworm
 Since thousands of years humans have utilized

Introduction insect silks for their own benefit and comfort. The
most famous example is the use of reeled silkworm
silk to produce textiles.
In contrast, despite the more promising properties of
their silk, spiders have not been domesticated for
large-scale or even industrial applications, since
farming the spiders is not commercially viable due
to their highly territorial and cannibalistic nature.
Before spider silks can be copied or mimicked, not
only the sequence of the underlying proteins but also
their functions have to be resolved. Several attempts
to recombinantly produce spider silks or spider silk
mimics in various expression hosts have been
reported previously. A new protein engineering
approach, which combines synthetic repetitive silk
sequences with authentic silk domains, reveals
proteins that closely resemble silk proteins and that
can be produced at high yields, which provides a
basis for cost-efficient large scale production of
spider silk-like proteins
Composition of
spider silk
 • Spider silks are protein polymers that display extraordinary physical
properties
• Spider silk is a natural polypeptide, polymeric protein which encompasses
collagen (in ligaments) and keratin (nails and hair)

Alanine structure • . The protein in dragline silk is fibroin which is a combination of the
proteins spidroin 1 and spidroin 2 (Spidroins are the main proteins in
spider silk. Different types of spider silk contain different spidroins, all of
which are members of a single protein family. Spidroin is part of a large
group of proteins called scleroproteins.)
• The exact composition of these proteins depends on factors including
species and diet. Fibroin consists of approximately 42% glycine and 25%
alanine as the major amino acids. The remaining components are mostly
glutamine, serine, leucine, valine etc. Spidroin 1 and spidroin 2 differ
mainly in their content of proline and tyrosine(amino acids).

Glycine structure
• Glycine the protein molecules containing glycine are arranged in a disorder
manner which gives the Silk good elasticity and stretchability
• Alanine the protein molecules which contain alanine are tightly arranged
and crystalline which makes the silk extremely strong .it is considered
stronger than steel.
Types of spider
silk
The different types of silk produced by spider, each for a different purpose

• DRAGLINE SILK
GLAND - MAJOR AMPULLATE

used to connect the spider to the web, as safety lines in case a spider should fall
and as the non-sticky spokes of the web .
Dragline silk is the strongest kind of silk because it must support the weight of
the spider.
• MINOR AMPULLATE SILK
GLAND - MINOR AMPULLATE
temporary scaffolding during web construction .
• EGG SAC SILK
GLAND- TUBILIFORM GLAND
male spiders weave sperm webs on which they deposit sperm and subsequently
transfer it to their front palps, ready for placing on a females genital organs. Some
species make a web and coat it with sex pheromones to attract a mate. Used for
protective egg sacs. Stiffest silk.
• SWATHING SILK
GLAND- ACINIFORM GLAND
Used to wrap and secure freshly captured prey. Two to three times as tough as the other silks, including dragline
• PYRIFORM SILK
GLAND- PYRIFORM
Produces attaching threads and attachment discs that anchor a silk thread to the surface or to another thread
• CAPTURE SPIRAL SILK
GLAND- FLAGELLIFORM
Capturing lines of the web , sticky tough and extremely stretchy
Prevents prey from getting out of the web
• AGGREGATE SILK
GLAND- AGGREGATE GLAND
Produce droplets that produce the surface part of sticky silk and create adhesives that are deposited along the threads
Prevents the prey from escaping
 silk GLAND SPINNERET USED

DRAGLINE MAJOR AMPULLATE ANTERIOR/MEDIAN

CAPTURE SPIRAL FLAGELLIFORM POSTERIOR

AGGREGATE AGGREGATE POSTERIOR

MINOR AMPULLATE MINOR AMPULLATE ANTERIOR/MEDIAN

EGG SAC CYLINDRIFORM /TUBILIFORM MEDIAN/POSTERIOR

SWATHING ACINIFORM MEDIAN/POSTERIOR

PIRIFORM PIRIFORM ANTERIOR

Properties of spider silk
 1 micron long (0.001 mm) ;
Length on a nanoscale, it's at least 50 times as long as these fibers
are wide—and researchers believe they could stretch even
further

Fineness finer than human hair

elasticity breaks between 2-4 times its length
lustrous Lacks luster

Tensile strength 1.3 Gpa

just 10-20 degrees above room temperature can cause a
Combustibility cobweb to quickly disappear (but with little to no flame)
Elongation at break(%)
35-50%
Tensile modulus 1.5-12 Gpa

Hydrophobic YES

luster No

Heat resistant Yes

 Density 1.097 g/cm cube

Melting point char at any temperature above 160 degrees

Celsius

Shrinkage % 50%
PROCESS
OF MAKING
SPIDER
SILK
Spiders use their silk glands to produce silk solutions which enter into the spinning tubes or
the spider’s spinnerets(A spinneret is a silk-spinning organ of a spider or the larva of an
insect.)
• Spinnerets have spigots (“faucets”) that connect to the silk glands. Silk starts as a liquid
protein stored in the spider’s internal silk glands before hardening into a solid form.
• Once the silk is solid, spiders use their spinnerets, which are located on the outside of
their abdomen, to produce the silky fibers for webs. Silk is hardened by the spider
acidifying the silk, a process similar to that used in the commercial manufacturing
process of making industrial fibers such as nylon. Spiders may sometimes eat their
silken webs and use it to make new silk
• They are then sedated with carbon dioxide gas, and pinned around the limbs and
abdomen, keeping them place without causing any harm. Silk is pulled by tweezer from
the spinnerets and attached to the spool with a dab of glue after which the motor is
started to begin harvesting. The silk produced here consists mainly of major ampullate
silk which forms the main structure of the web (like scaffolding) and minor ampullate
silk, which is used to form the main spiral of the spider's web. Nephila edulis females
can produce up to six different types of silk.
Advantages of spider
Advantages of silk
spider silk
Spider (arachnid) Spider silk exhibits a high resilience
silk is much and can absorb three times as much
energy as a synthetic fiber, such as
Biodegradable and
stronger than insect Kevlar (material used in bullet-proof biocompatible.
silk. vests).

the ability of
natural spider silk
Spider silk production to absorb in excess Spider silk also
could greatly reduce of 100,000 joules
many of the toxins and has the
of kinetic energy
pollutants used in
makes it a potential to
conventional petroleum
based fiber and polymer potentially ideal replace Kevlar
production process. material for in body armor.
structural blast
protection.
Disadvantages of spider silk
• Firstly spiders cannot be farmed like silkworms
since they are cannibals and will simply eat each
other if in close proximity.
• The silk produced is very fine so 400 spiders
would be needed to produce only one square yard of
cloth.
• The silk also hardens when exposed to air which
makes it difficult to work with.
• Spider silk lacks luster
• The survival rate of rearing is extremely low, so it is
difficult to raise spider in a large domestic silkworm
Application of spider silk
• Spider silk is a promising tool with broad
usability in medical devices. In the middle
ages spider webs were used as wound
dressing . The unmatched toughness of
spider silk would allow to improve several
medical products such as wound closure
systems, band-aids, and extremely thin
sutures for neurosurgery.
• Bullet-proof clothing.
• Wear-resistant lightweight clothing.
• Ropes, nets, seat belts, parachutes.
• Biodegradable bottles.
• Bandages, surgical thread.
• Artificial tendons or ligaments, supports for
weak blood vessels.
• protein created by special organs known as
spinnerets, spider silk can be used for
transportation, shelter, courtship, and all
kinds of creative ways to trap prey.
 Artificial spider silk
• In 2000, Nexia, a Canadian biotechnology company, was successful in
producing spider silk protein in transgenic goats.
• These goats carried the gene for spider silk protein, and the milk
produced by the goats contained significant quantities of the protein (1-
2 grams of silk proteins / liter of milk).
• the spinneret creates a gradient of protein concentration, pH, and
pressure, which drive the protein solution through liquid crystalline
phase transitions, ultimately generating the required silk structure
(which is a mixture of crystalline and amorphous biopolymer regions).
Replicating these complex conditions in lab environment has proved
difficult.
• Nexia used wet spinning methodologies which implied "squeezing" the
recombinant silk-protein solution (BIOSTEEL) through small extrusion
holes in order to simulate the behavior of the spinneret, but this was
insufficient to replicate the exact properties of the native spider silk
 Spider silk- stronger than steel?
• Strength is measured based on several properties. Spider silk is as strong as steel or in some cases even stronger when it
comes to tensile strength, which measures the amount of stress a material is able to withstand before breaking
• Tensile strength is measured in force per unit area, or GPa. The tensile strength of steel ranges from 0.2 GPa to 2 GPa, while
the tensile strength of some spider silks is about 1 GPa.
• In terms of strength-to-density ratio, spider silk is far stronger than steel (silks are about a sixth of the density of steel).
Essentially, that means a strand of silk is much stronger for its size than a steel beam is.
• But , stiffness is another important property of strength, measuring a material's ability to change shape elastically when force
is applied. In this case, spider silk is nowhere near as stiff as steel
• Another key feature of spider silk is its elasticity. Some silk can be stretched to up to four times its original length without
breaking. Even more impressive, it can retain its elasticity at extremely cold temperatures, as low as 40 degrees below zero
Fahrenheit.
 Why is spider silk so easy to break when it’s supposedly stronger
than steel?
• The simple answer is that spider silk breaks easily because it’s really, really, really thin. A thread in the web of a
garden spider is just 0.003 millimetres across – that’s more than 20 times thinner than a hair from your head.
• Steel and silk are made up of different material. Silk is a very different material from steel. It is actually protein –
the same stuff that our hair and finger nails are made from.
• Spider webs are made up of two silks- dragline and flat silk
• The spokes of the web are made from dragline silk. This is strong and slightly stretchy, which means it’s good for
making the main supports for the web.
• The rest of the web is made from flag silk, which is less strong but very elastic, so it is really good at absorbing the
shock when a great big fly smashes into the web.
• Darwin bark spider. It produces huge webs, about the size of a kitchen table. These are sometimes hung from trees
with silk threads that stretch right across rivers. To make sure these webs stay in place, the spider uses super strong
threads of silk.
• strongest steel is actually tougher than the champion spider silks and actually depends which silk are we using
 • From this we have concluded the spider silk can be
considered as the most promising fiber as it offers
excellent physical and chemical properties that can
withstand adverse and extreme conditions than many of
the existing natural and synthetic fibers.
• It is low weight, biodegradable, environment friendly,
Conclusion/ strong and so much more. They have the potential to
replace synthetic fibers in the future .

learning • Though the chemical synthesis seems to be unfruitful in

many aspects, the recombination method of producing
the spider silk using biological hosts proves to be a viable
outcome option for producing the spider silk in a large scale.
• In spite of various successful attempts made in the
production of dragline silk in the laboratory scales, there
are still various challenges like protein replication that
needs to be mastered.
 • www.reconnectwithnature.org
• medium.com
• newatlas.com
• www.researchgate.net
• https://youtu.be/LFF68_bME9E
• A_Review_on_Spider_Silk_Adhesion (pdf)

REFERENCES • SpiderSilk-PropertiesandUses (pdf)

• Spider Silk Harvesting(pdf)
• The_spinning_processes_for_spider_silk(pdf)
• DeNovoDesignofRecombinantSpiderSilkProteinsforMaterialApplic
ations(pdf)
• The-seven-types-of-native-silk-glands-and-threads-from-spider-of-
Araneus-diadematus(pdf)
THANK YOU