Abstract

Spider silk includes seven protein based fibers and glue-like substances produced by glands in the spider's abdomen. Minor ampullate silk is used to make the auxiliary spiral of the orb-web and also for wrapping prey, has a high tensile strength and does not supercontract in water. So far, only partial cDNA sequences have been obtained for minor ampullate spidroins (MiSps). Here we describe the first MiSp full-length gene sequence from the spider species Araneus ventricosus, using a multidimensional PCR approach. Comparative analysis of the sequence reveals regulatory elements, as well as unique spidroin gene and protein architecture including the presence of an unusually large intron. The spliced full-length transcript of MiSp gene is 5440 bp in size and encodes 1766 amino acid residues organized into conserved nonrepetitive N- and C-terminal domains and a central predominantly repetitive region composed of four units that are iterated in a non regular manner. The repeats are more conserved within A. ventricosus MiSp than compared to repeats from homologous proteins, and are interrupted by two nonrepetitive spacer regions, which have 100% identity even at the nucleotide level.

Published in

PLoS ONE
2012, Volume: 7, number: 12, article number: e52293
Publisher: PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

SLU Authors

• Johansson, Jan

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Karolinska Institute
  • Tallinn University

• Rising, Anna

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Karolinska Institute

UKÄ Subject classification

Genetics
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052293

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/42660