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First published online December 15, 2004
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 25-30 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01344

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Stretching of supercontracted fibers: a link between spinning and the variability of spider silk

G. V. Guinea, M. Elices^*, J. Pérez-Rigueiro and G. R. Plaza

Departamento de Ciencia de Materiales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, ETS de Ingenieros de Caminos, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: melices{at}mater.upm.es)

Accepted 14 October 2004

The spinning of spider silk requires a combination of aqueous environment and stretching, and the aim of this work was to explore the role of stretching silk fibers in an aqueous environment and its effect on the tensile properties of spider silk. In particular, the sensitivity of the spider silk tensile behaviour to wet-stretching could be relevant in the search for a relationship between processing and the variability of the tensile properties. Based on this idea and working with MAS silk from Argiope trifasciata orb-web building spiders, we developed a novel procedure that permits modification of the tensile properties of spider silk: silk fibers were allowed to supercontract and subsequently stretched in water. The ratio between the length after stretching and the initial supercontracted length was used to control the process. Tensile tests performed in air, after drying, demonstrated that this simple procedure allows to predictable reproduction of the stress-strain curves of either naturally spun or forcibly silked fibers. These results suggest that the supercontracted state has a critical biological function during the spinning process of spider silk.

Key words: spider, silk, Argiope trifasciata, spinning, tensile properties, supercontraction.

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