[Production and application of rabbit anti-imitative spider dragline silk protein polyclonal antibody]

A synthetic spider dragline gene s600 was cloned into fusion protein expression vector pGEX-KG and expressed in Escherichia coli. Protein S600 was purified and rabbit antiserum was prepared. Amino acid composition analysis confirmed the right expression of S600. Western blot analysis revealed that anti-S600 antiserum could react with natural spider silk, so the synthetic dragline protein, designed by the authors, shares similar immunological characteristics with the natural spider silk. An ELISA system was also established for the quantitative detection of synthetic dragline protein expression in silk gland (or in the cocoon) of transgenic silkworm.