Journal article
CRISPR/Cas9 Initiated Transgenic Silkworms as a Natural Spinner of Spider Silk
Biomacromolecules, v 20(6), pp 2252-2264
01 Jun 2019
PMID: 31059233
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Using transgenic silkworms with their natural spinning apparatus has proven to be a promising way to spin spider silk-like fibers. The challenges are incorporating native-size spider silk proteins and achieving an inheritable transgenic silkworm strain. In this study, a CRISPR/Cas9 initiated fixed-point strategy was used to successfully incorporate spider silk protein genes into the Bombyx mori genome. Native-size spider silk genes (up to 10 kb) were inserted into an intron of the fibroin heavy or light chain (FibH or FibL) ensuring that any sequence changes induced by the CRISPR/Cas9 would not impact protein production. The resulting fibers are as strong as native spider silks (1.2 GPa tensile strength). The transgenic silkworms have been tracked for several generations with normal inheritance of the transgenes. This strategy demonstrates the feasibility of using silkworms as a natural spider silk spinner for industrial production of high-performance fibers.
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Details
- Title
- CRISPR/Cas9 Initiated Transgenic Silkworms as a Natural Spinner of Spider Silk
- Creators
- Xiaoli Zhang - Utah State Univ, Dept Biol, Logan, UT 84341 USALijin Xia - Utah State Univ, Dept Biol, Logan, UT 84341 USABreton A. Day - Utah State Univ, Dept Biol, Logan, UT 84341 USAThomas I. Harris - Utah State Univ, Dept Biol Engn, Logan, UT 84341 USAPaula Oliveira - Utah State Univ, Dept Biol, Logan, UT 84341 USAChelsea Knittel - Drexel UniversityAna Laura Licon - Utah State Univ, Dept Biol Engn, Logan, UT 84341 USAChengliang Gong - Soochow UniversityGenevieve Dion - Drexel UniversityRandolph V. Lewis - Utah State Univ, Dept Biol, Logan, UT 84341 USAJustin A. Jones - Utah State Univ, Dept Biol, Logan, UT 84341 USA
- Publication Details
- Biomacromolecules, v 20(6), pp 2252-2264
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society; Washington, DC
- Number of pages
- 13
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Fashion Design
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000471212500009
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85066152573
- Other Identifier
- 991019169591904721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
- Chemistry, Organic
- Polymer Science