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Microdissection of Black Widow Spider Silk-producing Glands
09:47

Microdissection of Black Widow Spider Silk-producing Glands

Published on: January 11, 2011

Prey type, vibrations and handling interactively influence spider silk expression.

S J Blamires1, I-C Chao, I-M Tso

  • 1Department of Life Sciences, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.

The Journal of Experimental Biology
|November 2, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Spider silk properties change based on prey type, with nutrients and vibrations influencing gene expression for silk production. This genetic alteration allows spiders to adapt silk for specific prey capture.

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Area of Science:

  • Biochemistry
  • Animal Behavior
  • Materials Science

Background:

  • Spider silk's chemical and mechanical properties vary with prey, influenced by MaSp1 and MaSp2 gene expression.
  • The specific prey cues triggering differential gene expression remain largely unknown.
  • Prey nutrients, vibratory stimuli, and handling are hypothesized influences.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relative influence of prey nutrients versus vibratory stimuli and handling on silk protein expression.
  • To decouple prey-associated stimuli from nutrients in the orb web spider Nephila pilipes.
  • To understand how spiders adjust gene expression for silk production based on prey type.

Main Methods:

  • Experiments were designed to isolate vibratory stimuli/handling from nutrients using crickets and flies.
  • Amino acid composition of major ampullate (MA) silks was analyzed in Nephila pilipes under different feeding conditions.
  • Gene expression changes were inferred from amino acid composition shifts.

Main Results:

  • Spiders feeding on crickets produced MA silks with higher percentages of glutamine, serine, alanine, and glycine compared to those fed flies.
  • Proline composition in MA silks was unaffected by feeding treatments.
  • Stimuli-swapped feeding treatments (crickets with fly stimuli, flies with cricket stimuli) did not induce differential MaSp gene expression.

Conclusions:

  • Vibratory stimuli and handling interact with nutrients to prompt gene expression adjustments in Nephila pilipes for prey-specific silk properties.
  • Spiders can genetically modify silk's chemical and mechanical properties in response to different prey.
  • The MaSp model for Nephila clavipes may not universally apply to all Nephila species, as indicated by proline composition.