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Spider silk
produced in
transgenic
plants !
Spider silk is
at least five
times stronger
than steel, two
times more
elastic than
nylon,
waterproof, and
stretchable -
qualities that
may make it
important for
the textile and
construction
industries. This
has led
scientists to
try to
synthesize it in
the laboratory,
or to isolate
the genes for
spider silk and
transfer them to
animal cells for
mass production.
The former
method has
hitherto been
unsuccessful;
the latter
method is
expensive, and
the quantity
produced by
animal cells is
limited. In
order to
overcome these
factors,
scientists are
now turning to
“Transgenic
Plants for
Spider Silk-Like
Protein
Production.” In
an article in
the latest issue
of the
Information
Systems for
Biotechnology
Newsletter, P.
S. Janaki
Krishna looks at
recent research
on the
feasibility of
plant based
silk-like
protein (SLP)
production.
One such project
was reported by
Jianjun Yang and
co-authors, of
Du Pont de
Nemours & Co,
USA. Scientists
introduced the
DP1B gene into
Arabidopsis
plants by an
Agrobacterium-mediated
floral
transformation
method. DP1B is
a synthetic gene
for spider
dragline silk
protein, which
can be spun to
form silk fiber.
After growing
and evaluating
transgenic
plants,
researchers
found that: 1)
transgenic
plants
engineered with
mechanisms
targeting DP1B
production to
the cell's
endoplasmic
reticulum (ER)
were able to
accumulate SLP
in their seeds
to a level
greater than 15%
of total soluble
protein; 2) DP1B
was heritable
after one or two
cycles of sexual
reproduction;
and 3)
accumulation
levels of the
DP1B fusion
protein were
stable. The next
step may now be
to search for an
industrially
important crop
which can
support
large-scale,
plant-based
production of
DP1B SLP.
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