JAPAN-GM SPIDER SILK GM spider silk made by silkworms 50 percent stronger than alternatives, say researchers

Record ID: 285041

  • Title: JAPAN-GM SPIDER SILK GM spider silk made by silkworms 50 percent stronger than alternatives, say researchers
  • Date: 29th September 2014
  • Summary: TSUKUBA CITY, JAPAN (SEPTEMBER 11, 2014) (REUTERS) SILKWORM BEING TAKEN OUT OF COCOON BOX OF SILKWORM COCOONS PRINCIPAL RESEARCHER AT NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGROBIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, YOSHIHIKO KUWATA, HOLDING ORB WEAVER SPIDER (ARANEUS VENTRICOSUS) SPIDER IN FRONT OF SILK WORMS SILKWORM COCOONS SILKWORM, SPIDER AND COCOON SILKWORMS, COCOONS AND PRODUCTS PRODUCED FROM SILK, I
  • Embargoed: 14th October 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9AVNN6NA5IBSGBY352PHWBW3E
  • Story Text: Man's use of spider silk has typically been limited, because of the difficulties faced in producing the material in significant quantities. Silk use in manufacturing and elsewhere has been more commonly provided by moth caterpillars and silk worms.
    But now Japanese scientists say they may have found the secret to producing a strong spider silk in a readily available format for the first time - by not making it from spiders at all.
    By putting the dragline protein gene from Orb Weaver spiders (Araneus ventricosus) into genetically modified silkworms, researchers at the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS) enabled silkworms to create silk that is more than 50 percent stronger than that produced by regular silkworms.
    "We put the orb weaver spider gene into commercial variants of silkworms and succeeded in producing a new type of silk with 1.5 times toughness of common silk thread," NIAS principal researcher Yoshihiko Kuwana said.
    While spider silk itself is incredibly strong, Kuwana said that there have been various issues with breeding the spiders en masse.
    "In contrast to silkworms, spiders can be cannibalistic, so they actually eat each other, which makes it very difficult to breed a lot of them. We actually tried putting two of them into the same crate but when we came back the next morning there was only one left," he added.
    Silkworms, however, are easily domesticated and have long been used for silk thread production, notably dating back to in ancient China. Domesticated silk moths are also used heavily in commercial silk manufacturing.
    The silk from the genetically-modified silkworms has already been turned into vests and scarfs, and Kuwana said that he had high hopes for its eventual use in medical emergencies and disaster scenarios.
    "In the future I hope it could be used in surgerical sutures, or ropes used in disaster situations, or any area where one needs both strength and elasticity," he told Reuters Television.
    While they can currently only produce the silk in the laboratory, the research said that commercial viability was feasible for use in machine sewing and weaving, evidenced by using the transgenic spider silk to weave a vest and scarf.
    Silk currently produced by the silkworms remains weaker than that produced by the Araneus ventricosus spiders, but the team said its research showed that an increase in the recombined genes could give it the same breaking stress of spider dragline silk.
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