Tapping secrets of Aussie spider's unique silk
Silk so robust potential new genetic material touted

Date:
October 19, 2020
Source:
University of Melbourne
Summary:
The basket-web spider, which is found only in Australia, has
revealed it not only weaves a unique lobster pot web but that its
silk has elasticity and a gluing substance, that creates a high
degree of robustness.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
An international collaboration has provided the first insights into a new
type of silk produced by the very unusual Australian basket-web spider,
which uses it to build a lobster pot web that protects its eggs and
trap prey.


==========================================================================
The basket-web spider weaves a silk that is uniquely rigid and so robust
that the basket-web doesn't need help from surrounding vegetation to
maintain its structure.

"As far as we know, no other spider builds a web like this," said
Professor Mark Elgar from the School of BioSciences at the University
of Melbourne.

"This silk retains its rigidity, allowing a rather exquisite silken
basket or deadly ant trap." The collaboration between the University
of Melbourne and the University of Bayreuth with the Australian Nuclear
Science and Technology Organisation is likely to draw a lot of interest.

Entomologist William J Rainbow discovered the basket-spider in 1900 but
made no mention of the nature of its silk, perhaps because he had only
seen drawings of the web and imagined it to be more sack-like.



==========================================================================
The recent study, just published in Scientific Reports, as Dimensional stability of a remarkable spider foraging web achieved by synergistic arrangement of silk fiber," has found that the silk used to construct
the basket web is similar to the silk that many species of spiders use
to wrap around their eggs, to protect them from the elements and enemies.

"Our discovery may provide insights into the evolution of foraging webs,"
said Professor Elgar. "It is widely thought that silk foraging webs,
including the magnificent orb-webs, evolved from the habit of producing
silk to protect egg cases. Perhaps the basket-web is an extension of
the protective egg case and represents a rare contemporary example of
an evolutionary ancestral process." The basket-web spider is found
only in Australia. Its basket is approximately 11mm in diameter and 14
mm deep and has crosslinked threads of varying diameters. The nature of
the silk was revealed by the Australian Synchrotron, a national facility
of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation in south
east Melbourne.

Professor Thomas Scheibel from the University of Bayreuth said the
rigidity of the silk appears to come from the synergistic arrangement
of microfibres and submicron fibres.

"Nature has created a complex structure that, at first glance, resembles industrially produced composites," said Professor Scheibel who headed
the research from Germany.



========================================================================== "Further investigations have, however, shown that they are chemically
different components and their respective properties together result
in the thread's extreme elasticity and toughness, thus creating a high
degree of robustness.

With today's composite materials, on the other hand, it is mainly the
fibres embedded in the matrix that establish the particular properties required, such as high stability." While more work needs to be done
to understand the molecular details of the silk, Professor Scheibel
said there is potential interest in a new genetic material that can be
produced in a scalable manner.

"The interesting feature is the high lateral stiffness as well as the
gluing substances, which could be useful in several types of applications
but it will be some time before this becomes a possibility." Professor
Elgar said "More generally the basket web, and the properties of its
silk, highlight the importance of continuing to investigate obscure,
unfamiliar species.

"There is increasing recognition that solutions to many of the complex challenges and puzzles we face today can be found from biological systems.

"This so-called 'Bioinspiration' draws on some 3.8 billion years of
natural selection honing biological forms, processes and systems. The
potential insights from that diversity of life, about which we still
know rather little, is staggering."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Melbourne. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Christian Haynl, Jitraporn Vongsvivut, Kai R. H. Mayer, Hendrik
Bargel,
Vanessa J. Neubauer, Mark J. Tobin, Mark A. Elgar, Thomas
Scheibel. Free- standing spider silk webs of the thomisid
Saccodomus formivorus are made of composites comprising micro-
and submicron fibers. Scientific Reports, 2020; 10 (1) DOI:
10.1038/s41598-020-74469-z ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201019082832.htm

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