Part 35
Article: Biotechnology My Blog Title: The world, from the past to the present, retold from the timelines.
2023: Researchers reported a production method for spider silk fibers from gene-edited transgenic silkworms for a sustainable alternative material six times stronger than Kevlar. These repetitive sequences in silk fibers, whether derived from silkworms or spiders, played a crucial role in determining their strength and toughness by facilitating the formation of Beta sheets crystalline regions. Researchers recently described their process and findings in the journal Matter. Silkworms had long been cultivated for their silk, but the fibers they naturally produce break easily. Scientists got around this by taking steps that included using the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to insert spider silk protein genes into silkworms. They also made localized changes to the inserted genes to ensure they cooperated with the worms’ existing silk-producing mechanisms. The tweaks allowed the genetically modified silkworms to produce full-strength, flexible, biodegradable spider silk fibers. The fibers weren’t quite as stretchy or as strong as silk produced naturally by spiders, but they had “better mechanical properties than anybody else had been able to show,” said Randy Lewis, a molecular biologist at Utah State University who was not involved with the study, to ScienceNews’ Saima S. Iqbal. Like spiders, the silkworms also coated the fibers with a protective layer that could help them withstand sunlight and humidity. Previously developed processes for spinning artificial spider silk had struggled to apply a surface layer of glycoproteins and lipids to the silk to help it withstand humidity and exposure to sunlight, an anti-aging "skin layer" that spiders apply to their webs. Glycoproteins are proteins which contain oligosaccharide (sugar) chains covalently attached to amino acid side-chains. Genetically modified silkworms offered a solution to this problem, said Mi, since silkworms coated their own fibers with a similar protective layer. As such, the gene-edited silkworms were an “all-in-one station for spider silk fiber production,” Mi told NewScientist’s Alice Klein. Junpeng Mi, a PhD candidate at the College of Biological Science and Medical Engineering at Donghua University and the first author of the study. The researchers were optimistic that large-scale commercialization could be in the silkworms’ future. But before they can scale up to commercial production, the researchers would need to overcome a few hurdles. First, they needed to determine if the inserted spider silk protein genes get passed down to new generations of silkworms via normal breeding, reported Science’s Katherine Bourzac. They would also need to cross-breed the genetically modified silkworms with commercial silkworms that were already used for silk cultivation. Finally, they would need to deal with the intellectual property issues that could arise from distributing gene-edited silkworm eggs to farmers. In addition, they would need to deal with the same challenges current silkworm farmers face. Silkworms were susceptible to infection, and they were known to produce fibers with varying mechanical properties, per ScienceNews. The exceptionally high mechanical performance of the fibers produced in this study hold significant promise in this field.
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Picture sources: Peakpx.com and Pexels, Pixabay in PowerDirector and other websites:
1:https://technology.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-01/LAR-TOPS-339_web.jpg
2:https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S1359836821003887-gr4.jpg
5:https://scitechdaily.com/images/Strong-Spider-Silk-Concept-Art-768x512.jpg
8:https://phys.org/news/2023-09-spider-silk-spun-silkworms-green.amp
9:https://www.sturgesmfgco.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/KEVLAR_WEBBING_STURGES_1.png
10:https://www.cell.com/matter/fulltext/S2590-2385%2823%2900421-6
11:https://www.cell.com/matter/issue?pii=S2590-2385(22)X0011-8#fullCover
12:https://figures.academia-assets.com/107646968/figure_001.jpg
14:https://www.usu.edu/today/images/stories/lg/23_AAR_Fundraising-Fiscal-Year_UST.jpg
15:https://www.chemistryviews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/202309_SpiderSilkFromSilkworms.png
16:https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/13103647/SEI_235372893.jpg?width=700
18:https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ND15_demo.3x622-2.jpg
20:https://image.mlive.com/home/mlive-media/pgfull/img/lansing/photo/2015/08/04/-87a90a89f34c5d5a.JPG
22:https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0960852421014176-gr1_lrg.jpg
23:https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/ox4AAeSwBWJoFlcL/s-l1200.jpg
24:https://wedushare.com/_next/image?url=%2Fuploads%2FDonghua_University_4aa44b3c91.jpg&w=750&q=75
25:https://www.mdpi.com/foods/foods-11-01594/article_deploy/html/images/foods-11-01594-g001.png
26:https://www.science.org/do/10.1126/science.abg5856/full/B__2020Science_1280p-1644908614350.jpg
27:https://media.lyon-france.com/1280x720/6147198/30887048.jpg
30:https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0115/7015/1524/files/Production_of_Mulberry_Silk.jpg?v=1724743057
31:https://www.setindiabiz.com/assets/images/ipr-renewal.webp
33:https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0965174814001118-fx1_lrg.jpg
35:https://krushidoctor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/uzi-fly-control-768x432.webp
Video Sources: Pexels and Pixabay in PowerDirector and other websites:
37:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/71819394-international-space-station-rays-sun
38:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/46028597-4k-space-shuttle-silhouette-crawler-launch-padmxf
42:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/100173011-space-shuttle-and-rockets-united-launch-alliance
47:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/105837389-silk-manufacturing-cocoon-boiling-process
49:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/10751944-reeling-machine-and-textile-machine-operation
50:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/10749345-silkworm-cocoon-reeling-silk-factoryworkshop
51:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/195124459-crispr-endonuclease
53:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/77577533-labyrinth-spider-eating-its-trapped-prey
55:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/76490836-magic-game-colors-spider-web-sun-beams-summer
56:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/76490742-magic-game-colors-spider-web-sun-beams-summer
57:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/76490577-magic-game-colors-spider-web-sun-beams-summer
58:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/12544764-backlight-spider-web-olympic-national-park
59:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/68102133-spider-siting-spiderweb-water-drops
64:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/245500315-little-silkworm-butterflies-flap-their-wings
65:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/199389325-many-mature-silkworms-eat-fresh-mulberry-leaves
66:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/196264383-close-silkworm-moths-waiting-mating
67:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/48844843-silkworm-spawn
68:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/45465881-pupa-silkmoth-or-bombyx-mori-laying-eggs
69:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/17548811-silkworm-chrysalis-laying-eggs
70:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/310564348-silkworm-moths-are-fencing-breed
71:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/60595557-silkworm-moth-larvae-hatching-eggs
74:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/60603854-mulberry-trees-farm-silk-production
76:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/153794877-time-lapse-footage-new-born-silkworm
77:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/153636567-zoom-close-footage-silkworm-eggs-white-paper
78:https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/144966853-silk-worm-moths-and-eggs-black-background
Consulted References:
Refer to Part 3 for all consolidated references for all parts.


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