Bactericidal plants for the manufacture of spider silk for space missions

In penetrating new research, scientists have engineered bacteria genetically to produce high-strength spider silk that can be used in a variety of applications, ranging from bulletproof fabrics, surgical threads, space uniforms, bridge construction and other industrial applications.

Silk is the spider of the black widow of the rose material that we know so far, it is stronger than steel, ultra-light, and very tough, and biodegradable, which has all the characteristics that make it treasure in the eyes of researchers and manufacturers, a stronger and tougher than steel, Steel, can not produce its natural fibers in bulk.

Researchers have long hoped to produce this silk in a laboratory, preferring to produce it artificially, but faced with many technical problems. If you put enough spiders together in a silk plantation, it would be a loser, because spiders tend to eat each other, and very few spider webs are produced.

Therefore, scientists tried to engineer bacteria, yeast, plants and even goats to produce spider silk, but they were unable to fully replicate the mechanical properties of natural fibers. So finding a way to produce large amounts of spider silk is a major challenge for scientists.

According to a press release by the American Chemical Society (ACS), scientists have recently announced a new method of producing spider silk from genetically modified bacteria. The researchers presented their findings on Tuesday at the meeting and the National Exhibition of the 2019 Spring.

Genetic Trick
"In nature, there are a lot of protein-containing materials that have amazing mechanical properties, but the supply of these materials is very limited. My laboratory is interested in microbial engineering so that we can not just produce," Fuzhou Chang, a senior researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, told a news briefing. But also make them better. "

But part of the problem with production is that spider silk proteins are encoded by extremely long and repetitive sequences of DNA. When scientists place genes in other living organisms, they are unstable and are often cloned by the host's cellular mechanism.

To overcome this problem, the team inserted cryptographic genes for two pieces of spider silk protein into bacteria, each surrounded by a chain called protein introns, protein sequences that form part of a protein that has the ability to remove itself and rejoin parts The remaining "extinets" by the Baptist Association.

The researchers purified the short fragments of the spider silk protein, and by mixing them together, these fragments are united by "glue" from the sequence of the enzymes, which produce a full-length protein at the end.

Researchers have been able to make different proteins by altering the DNA of the spider's silk and developing other sequences in the bacteria. Through their new methodology, scientists have been able to manufacture two grams of spider silk per liter of bacterial farms. This may seem small, but the press release indicates that it has improved considerably compared to other attempts to produce silk.

Silk Space Spider
When woven into fibers, the spider silk spider product has all the characteristics of natural spider silk, including exceptional strength, durability and rubber. Now, researchers are simplifying the process so that the protein binding reaction can occur within the bacterial cells themselves. This would improve the efficiency and automation of the new system.

If the rate of spider silk production increases according to this research, NASA may want to transfer bacteria in its future space missions, and the bacterial protein production system can be useful during future space missions.

"NASA is one of our financiers who are interested in bio-production," says Zhang. "They are currently developing technologies that enable them to convert carbon dioxide into carbohydrates that can be used for the microbes we genetically modify. Based protein in space without bringing in a large amount of raw material. "