Nanoassembly of spider silk protein mediated by intrinsically disordered regions

Spider silk is the self-assembling product of silk proteins each containing multiple repeating units. Each repeating unit is entirely intrinsically disordered or contains a small disordered domain. The role of the disordered domain/unit in conferring silk protein storage and self-assembly is not fully understood yet. Here, we used biophysical and biochemical techniques to investigate the self-assembly of a miniature version of a minor ampullate spidroin (denoted as miniMiSp). miniMiSp consists of two identical intrinsically disordered domains, one folded repetitive domain, and two folded terminal domains. Our data indicated that miniMiSp self-assembles into oligomers and further into liquid droplets. The oligomerization is attributed to the aggregation-prone property of both the disordered domains and the folded repetitive domain. Our results support the model of micellar structure for silk proteins at high protein concentrations. The disordered domain is indispensable for liquid droplet formation via liquid-liquid phase separation, and tyrosine residues located in the disordered domain make dominant contributions to stability of the liquid droplets. As the same tyrosine residues are also critical to fibrillation, the liquid droplets are likely an intermediate state between the solution state and the fiber state. Additionally, the terminal domains contribute to the pH- and salt-dependent self-assembly properties.