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Modelling self assembly of natural silk solutions |
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| Authors: | Braun F N Viney C |
| Institution: | a Departments of Biochemistry and Biophysics and Stockholm Bioinformatics Center, Stockholm University, 10691, Stockholm, Sweden b Department of Chemistry, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK |
| Abstract: | We present a tentative interpretation of the origin of nematic liquid crystalline order exhibited by various natural silk fibroin solutions, notably those of orb-weaving spiders and the domestic silkworm Bombyx mori. It is thought that liquid crystalline rheology is exploited during the spinning process. We discuss in this approach the response of the liquid crystalline phase diagram to equilibrium physiological conditions and to parameters characterising the amino acid sequence of the fibroin molecules. The phase diagram is sensitive in this latter respect to sequence mutations, such that it may constitute a source of evolutionary selection pressure. |
| Keywords: | Phase behaviour of silk solutions Spiders (araneae) Lepidopterans Liquid crystals Self assembly Amino acid substitution |
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