Morphology and Microstructure of Spider Dragline Silk from Araneus Ventricosus

The spider dragline silk has excellent mechanical properties. The stress- strain curves of dragline silk fibers have intraspecific and intraindividual variability because of the spiders active control during spinning process. To investigate the relationship between the morphology of dragline silk fibers and spinning conditions, four samples were made at the reeling rates of 1mm/s, 20mm/s, 43.5mm/s and 110mm/s from the major ampullate glands of Araneus Ventricosus and the other two of dragline silks were prepared from a crawling or dropping spider. The surface microstructure and nanofibril characteristic were analyzed with atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM images of 2000nm*2000nm and 500nm*500nm of these samples showed that the spinning condition influenced the surface roughness and fibril size, while AFM images of 200nm*200nm clearly displayed that dragline silk of Araneus Ventricosus included sheet macro-conformation structure. These results can facilitate the further investigation of the spinning mechanism of a spider in order to understand mechanical properties and macromolecular structures of dragline silk.

Morphology and Microstructure of Spider Dragline Silk from Araneus Ventricosus

The spider dragline silk has excellent mechanical properties. The stress- strain curves of dragline silk fibers have intraspecific and intraindividual variability because of the spider's active control during spinning process. To investigate the relationship between the morphology of dragline silk fibers and spinning conditions, four samples were made at the reeling rates of 1 mm/s, 20 mm/s, 43.5 mm/s and 110 mm/s from the major ampullate glands of Araneus Ventricosus and the other two of dragline silks were prepared from a crawling or dropping spider. The surface microstructure and nanofibril characteristic were analyzed with atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM images of 2 000 nm *2 000 nm and 500 nm*500 nm of these samples showed that the spinning condition influenced the surface roughness and fibril size, while AFM images of 200 nm*200 nm clearly displayed that dragline silk of Araneus Ventricosus included sheet macro-conformation structure. These results can facilitate the further investigation of the spinning mechanism of a spider in order to understand mechanical properties and macromolecular structures of dragline silk.