Drosophila melanogaster resilin improves the mechanical properties of transgenic silk

Resilin is a natural protein with high extensibility and resilience that plays a key role in the biological processes of insects, such as flight, bouncing, and vocalization. This study used piggyBac-mediated transgenic technology to stably insert the Drosophila melanogaster resilin gene into the sil...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:PloS one 2023-03, Vol.18 (3), p.e0282533-e0282533
Hauptverfasser: Zhao, Shuo, Ye, Xiaogang, Dai, Xiangping, Wang, Xinqiu, Yu, Shihua, Zhong, Boxiong
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Resilin is a natural protein with high extensibility and resilience that plays a key role in the biological processes of insects, such as flight, bouncing, and vocalization. This study used piggyBac-mediated transgenic technology to stably insert the Drosophila melanogaster resilin gene into the silkworm genome to investigate whether exogenous protein structures improve the mechanical properties of silkworm silk. Molecular detection showed that recombinant resilin was expressed and secreted into silk. Secondary structure and mechanical property analysis showed that the β-sheet content in silk from transgenic silkworms was higher than in wild-type silk. The fracture strength of silk fused with resilin protein was 7.2% higher than wild-type silk. The resilience of recombinant silk after one-time stretching and cyclic stretching was 20.5% and 18.7% higher than wild-type silk, respectively. In summary, Drosophila resilin can enhance the mechanical properties of silk, and this study is the first to improve the mechanical properties of silk using proteins other than spider silk, which broadens the possibilities for the design and application of biomimetic silk materials.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0282533