Physico-Chemical Structural Characterizations and Mechanical Properties of Egg Case Silk from The Two Spiders:Argiope amoena and Nephila clavata
悦目金蛛和棒络新妇卵袋丝物理化学结构表征及其力学性能研究

Spider silk is the result of 400 million years of evolution and an attractive natural animal protein fibers for its excellent mechanical properties. The biological function and spider life history have shaped the silk structures and mechanical properties. Here the authors examined the egg case silks from the orb web spider, Argiope amoena and Nephila clavata by the automatic amino acid analyzer, SEM, FTIR and electric single-fiber tensile apparatus with the goal of expanding our understanding of the relationship between the structure, mechanical performance and biological function of these unique biomaterials. The results indicated that the egg case of these two spiders was composed of the micron-sized cylindrical and major ampullate silk and submicron-sized or nanoscale aciniform silk. The physical (e.g. diameter, morphologies), amino acid composition (e.g. polar, glycine, serine, proline, large and small side chains amino acid) and secondary structure (e.g.β-sheet crystalline, amorphous domains ) characteristics of egg case silk all matched to the mechanical (e.g. break strength, extensibility, initial modulus) requirements for their biological or ecological functions respectively.