The understanding of the modular sequence architecture of spider silks proteins (spidroins) and its relationship with the mechanical properties of silks shows a clear explanation how nature overcomes the challenges in the production of high performance materials. In this context, spider silks have emerged as potential candidates for many biomedical and biotechnological applications, due to their intrinsic ability to perform very specific biochemical, mechanical and structural functions ( Vollrath, 2000 Vollrath and Porter, 2009 Spiess et al., 2010 Kiseleva et al., 2020).
Because of their biocompatibility, biodegradation and non-immunogenicity, bio-derived materials have numerous applications in the medical field and are playing a central role in biomedical engineering ( Long et al., 2021 Lynch et al., 2021). For this purpose, synthetic biology tools have been applied to explore the function and structure of different biological materials, such as proteins, polysaccharides, and polyesters ( Bryksin et al., 2014 Keating and Young, 2019). One of the major goals of material science is to create innovative bio-derived structural materials with tailor made properties. Accordingly, in this review, we highlight the relationship between the molecular structure of spider silk and its mechanical properties and aims to provide a critical summary of recent progress in research employing recombinantly produced bioengineered spidroins for the production of innovative bio-derived structural materials. The versatility of spidroins, along with their biocompatible and biodegradable nature, also placed them as leading-edge biological macromolecules for improved drug delivery and various biomedical applications. Although in nature only fibers are formed from spidroins, in vitro, scientists can explore non-natural morphologies including nanofibrils, particles, capsules, hydrogels, films or foams. Advances in synthetic biology have enabled the design and production of spidroins with the aim of biomimicking the structure-property-function relationships of spider silks.
This characteristic is a result of the interplay of composition, structure and self-assembly of spider silk proteins (spidroins). Spider silks are well known for their extraordinary mechanical properties.
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