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First published online January 3, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 320-326 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02009
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The influence of anaesthesia on the tensile properties of spider silk

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

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



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  		Fig. 1. Experimental set-up of the monitored forced silking process. The immobilized spider (a) is placed upside down, and the tip of fibre (b) is fixed with a magnet (c) to the load cell (d). The tip of a micropipette perforating the plastic bag (e) is used as the gas inlet. The silking process proceeds by displacing the crosshead of the testing machine at constant speed.

 


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  		Fig. 2. Variation of the silking force (A), fibre diameter (B) and silking stress (C) during the silking process at 1 mm s-1 of an anaesthetized spider. The shaded zone spans the period during which the spider was exposed to the CO2 flow. The three regions I, II and III, referred to in the text are indicated. The samples whose tensile properties were measured are numbered from 1 to 8 and their positions along the silking process are indicated at the bottom of each panel. FM(I), maximum force in region I; Fm(I), minimum force in region I; FM(II), maximum force in region II; Fm(III), minimum force in region III.

 


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  		Fig. 3. Comparison of the morphology of silk fibres spun before anaesthesia (A), during anaesthesia (B) and after the removal of anaesthesia (C).

 


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  		Fig. 4. Stress-strain curves of the silk samples as labelled in Fig. 2. The number adjacent to each curve identifies each sample. The range of tensile properties spanned by naturally spun (NS) fibres is shaded, and an example of a characteristic forcibly silked fibre retrieved from an unanaesthetized spider is also shown (FS fibre).

 

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© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2006