近日,，科研人員在國(guó)際權(quán)威雜志PNAS上發(fā)表論文"Silkworms transformed with chimeric silkworm/spider silk genes spin composite silk fibers with improved mechanical properties"稱,，他們已經(jīng)培育出了一種能吐出含有蜘蛛絲蛋白的堅(jiān)韌的纖維的蠶,。
蜘蛛絲纖維比蠶吐出的絲的彈性和伸展性更好,，這讓蜘蛛絲適合用于一系列的醫(yī)學(xué)應(yīng)用,，諸如外科手術(shù)縫合傷口。但是蜘蛛的領(lǐng)地習(xí)性和同類相食為飼養(yǎng)蜘蛛來制造蛛絲提出了挑戰(zhàn),。
Donald Jarvis及其同事培育了轉(zhuǎn)基因蠶,，它們表達(dá)促進(jìn)了絲的彈性和抗張強(qiáng)度的基因序列,，讓這些蠶吐出含有蜘蛛絲蛋白的合成纖維,。
長(zhǎng)久以來，人們用轉(zhuǎn)基因細(xì)菌,、酵母、植物,、昆蟲和哺乳動(dòng)物細(xì)胞制造出了蜘蛛絲蛋白,，但是使用蠶制造蜘蛛絲消除了對(duì)制造后的紡織技術(shù)的需求。
此前把蜘蛛絲蛋白放進(jìn)蠶吐的絲纖維中的嘗試的結(jié)果是相對(duì)較低的產(chǎn)量和這種嵌合蛋白與絲纖維的結(jié)合不穩(wěn)定,。相比之下,，這組作者報(bào)告說，他們的這種改造技術(shù)帶來了嵌合蛋白穩(wěn)定結(jié)合的纖維,。
結(jié)果,，這種復(fù)合絲蛋白至少和蜘蛛牽引絲蛋白一樣堅(jiān)韌，而且平均起來比蠶吐的纖維更堅(jiān)韌,。因此，這組作者說蠶可能成為制造含有蜘蛛絲蛋白的堅(jiān)韌的絲纖維的工廠,。（生物谷bioon.com）
doi:10.1073/pnas.1109420109
PMC:
PMID:
Silkworms transformed with chimeric silkworm/spider silk genes spin composite silk fibers with improved mechanical properties
Florence Teuléa , Yun-Gen Miaob, Bong-Hee Sohnc, Young-Soo Kimc, Donald L. Jarvisa
The development of a spider silk-manufacturing process is of great interest. However, there are serious problems with natural manufacturing through spider farming, and standard recombinant protein production platforms have provided limited progress due to their inability to assemble spider silk proteins into fibers. Thus, we used piggyBac vectors to create transgenic silkworms encoding chimeric silkworm/spider silk proteins. The silk fibers produced by these animals were composite materials that included chimeric silkworm/spider silk proteins integrated in an extremely stable manner. Furthermore, these composite fibers were, on average, tougher than the parental silkworm silk fibers and as tough as native dragline spider silk fibers. These results demonstrate that silkworms can be engineered to manufacture composite silk fibers containing stably integrated spider silk protein sequences, which significantly improve the overall mechanical properties of the parental silkworm silk fibers.
