Transgenic Silkworm Chimeric Spider Silk Production
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for producing spider silk fibers are inefficient, as they fail to consistently yield fibers with the necessary tensile strength and flexibility for commercial applications, and existing recombinant protein production systems struggle to scale up production to cost-effective levels.
Innovation Solution
A transgenic silkworm production system is developed that incorporates spider silk genetic sequences using a piggyBac vector, enabling the silkworm to naturally spin chimeric spider silk fibers with enhanced tensile strength and flexibility, bypassing protein purification and spinning challenges.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If recombinant protein production systems are used to produce spider silk proteins, then protein production can be achieved, but the amount of protein produced is far below practical commercial levels and the proteins cannot be reliably spun into useful fibers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses silkworms as an intermediary organism to produce spider silk proteins. The silkworm's natural silk gland system serves as a mediator that can both produce large quantities of recombinant spider silk protein and naturally spin it into fibers, bridging the gap between protein production and reliable fiber formation that other heterologous systems cannot achieve
Solution Approach 2:
The silkworm system performs self-service by using its own native silk spinning machinery to process the recombinant spider silk proteins into fibers. This eliminates the need for external post-production spinning processes, which are required in other systems but fail to produce reliable fibers
2Productivity
If transgenic plant and animal expression systems are scaled up for commercial production, then production capacity increases, but protein production levels would have to be increased substantially to be cost-effective
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the spider silk protein production function from complex mammalian cell or plant expression systems and transfers it to the silkworm system. This extraction allows utilization of the silkworm's highly efficient natural silk production and spinning machinery, achieving both high productivity and cost-effectiveness without the substantial scaling challenges of other systems
3Ease of manufacture
If post-production spinning methods are used to create fibers from recombinant proteins, then fiber production can be attempted, but the process is complex and does not yield useful fibers consistently
Solution Approach 1:
The silkworm performs self-service by using its own integrated silk gland and spinning apparatus to automatically process the recombinant spider silk proteins into fibers. This eliminates the need for complex external post-production spinning operations, achieving both ease of manufacture and reliable production of useful fibers with adequate tensile strength and flexibility
Data Source
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AI summary
Disclosed are transgenic silkworms engineered to posses and express a chimeric spider silk protein gene, the chimeric spider silk protein gene encoding a chimeric spider silk protein having spider silk domains specific for a spider silk elasticity motif sequence and/or a spider silk strength motif sequence. Also provided are improved silkworm silk fibers having improved strength (tensile) and elasticity characteristics relative to native silkworm silk fibers. An improved method for preparing chimeric silk fibers employing the transgenic silkworms disclosed herein is also provided, the method employing a piggyBac based vector system and a helper plasmid. Genetic expression cassettes are provided, and are used to create a number of synthetic spider silk encoding sequences (Spider 2, Spider 4, Spider 6, Spider 8). A piggyBac vector system is used to transform mutant silkworm, in the presence of a helper plasmid, to incorporate the chimeric spider silk gene into the silkworm to provide a stable transformant. These transgenic silkworms thus provide an efficient spider silk producing organism suitable for commercial production of silk fibers.