r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jun 10 '19
Biology Scientists first in world to sequence genes for spider glue - the first-ever complete sequences of two genes that allow spiders to produce glue, a sticky, modified version of spider silk that keeps a spider’s prey stuck in its web, bringing us closer to the next big advance in biomaterials.
https://news.umbc.edu/umbcs-sarah-stellwagen-first-in-world-to-sequence-genes-for-spider-glue/180
u/dentedeleao Jun 10 '19
For example, farmers could spray the glue along a barn wall to protect their livestock from insects that bite or cause disease, and then could rinse it off without worrying about polluting waterways with dangerous pesticides. They could use glue similarly to protect crops from pests. It could also be applied in areas where mosquito-borne illnesses are prevalent. “It could also just be fun to play with,” Stellwagen says.
I'm very excited to see where this research winds up being applied, the possibilities really sound endless. On a somewhat unrelated note, the picture is the lead researcher with her pet tarantula, she looks so proud to be showing it off!
27
Jun 10 '19
Which is ironic, because those don't build webs.
8
u/Grundleheart Jun 10 '19
It's been so long since I used the word ironic used properly.
I just wanted to note that and thank you.
3
3
15
u/SpiderGlue Jun 10 '19
First author here! Holy moly, this is crazy! Thanks Reddit! I poured my heart into this project, glad to see it's appreciated!
3
u/AISP_Insects Jun 11 '19
This is incredible! It is very rare to see authors visit r/science at all. I think people will be delighted to have you answer their questions where possible.
5
u/SpiderGlue Jun 11 '19
My university is setting up an AMA on r/AskScience soon, so gather your questions for that!
2
13
u/soup_cow Jun 10 '19
Check out Spiber. They've done some really cool stuff with synthetic spider silk already.
32
66
u/akaBrotherNature Jun 10 '19
Given how cheap whole genome sequencing has become, and how read-lengths have been increasing, I'm surprised to hear that these genes haven't already been sequenced!
39
u/dentedeleao Jun 10 '19
The whole sequence wound up being over 42,000 base pairs with lots of repeats. The lead researcher said they were expecting a quick project and were shocked at how long the gene turned out to be. It took them two years to finally sequence it.
26
u/frausting Jun 10 '19
That was my reaction. The article actually does a good job of explaining the issue. Typical next-generation sequencing (Illumina) works by chopping up all the DNA and sequencing short fragments. Then you assemble those back together, like a puzzle.
But their gene was highly repetitive so it was basically impossible to fully assemble.
They then moved onto Long areas Technology (probably either PacBio or Oxford Nanopore, the article didn’t specify), which give many fewer sequences, just a fraction of what Illumina gives you, but they’re much longer. Illumina gives ~150-300 bases of DNA per read. Long Read sequencing routinely gives tens of thousands of bases on one read, potentially enough to sequence this whole 40kbp gene on one read.
4
u/ThievesRevenge Jun 10 '19
Sorry to bother, but why is it being repetitive make it hard to assemble?
23
10
u/Epogen Jun 10 '19
Because repetitive areas of a genome (such as a TA box for example) are relatively common and upon reassembly, can align with other areas of the genome that are not within the area of interest.
6
u/frausting Jun 10 '19
No problem at all! Other commenters were faster than me, but yeah it basically is like a puzzle. If more pieces look alike, then it’s more difficult to assemble.
In biological terms, if you have an AT rich region that is basically 10,000 nucleotides of ATATATAT, then you’ll have a set of reads that just say ATATAT.
In general, when you’re doing shotgun assemblies, it’s a 2 dimensional game. You’ll have some reads that extend the assembly and you’ll have some reads that just provide more coverage/depth to the assembly you already have.
If you don’t already know beforehand how long your AT region is, who’s to say that the AT region is truly only one or two reads long (300 nt) and you’re just getting insanely deep depth/high coverage — versus having 1x coverage for an AT region that’s hundreds of thousands of bases long?
Is it [AT] with 200x coverage or [ATAT] with 100x coverage or [ATATATATAT] with 20x coverage?
That’s when they went back and rescaffolded it LRT and were able to answer that question.
1
u/Walter_Malone_Carrot Jun 10 '19
There’s a lot of organisms out there. And every organism has a lot of genes.
1
8
Jun 10 '19
Ooh, that's the study I'm paying close attention to. I know a few of the phd students working on it. It's pretty cool
5
u/dracola64 Jun 10 '19
Meaning the scientists must match up the overlapping ends of the short sections to determine the entire sequence?
1
Jun 10 '19
No they used a long-read sequencer, but the article doesn’t mention exactly which one. On some, there’s no limit to length.
1
Jun 10 '19
This is from the actual paper (I don’t bother reading the typed up journalist stuff)
“We combined short read Illumina and long read Oxford Nanopore technologies to sequence aggregate spidroins from orb weaving spider Argiope trifasciata...”
1
5
u/Knittingpasta Jun 10 '19
Now if only we could replicate the regular spider web strands. That would make awesome robust materials, even soft clothing
1
u/rseasmith Jun 10 '19
Hello and welcome to /r/science!
You may see more removed comments in this thread than you are used to seeing elsewhere on reddit. On /r/science we have strict comment rules designed to keep the discussion on topic and about the posted study and related research. This means that comments that attempt to confirm/deny the research with personal anecdotes, jokes, memes, or other off-topic or low-effort comments are likely to be removed.
Because it can be frustrating to type out a comment only to have it removed or to come to a thread looking for discussion and see lots of removed comments, please take time to review our comment rules before posting.
If you're looking for a place to have a more relaxed discussion of science-related breakthroughs and news, check out our sister subreddit /r/EverythingScience.
9
2
2
u/pixel8knuckle Jun 10 '19
Technology is so cool. Remember plastics and how they made the world a better place? Keep on “progressing” and make sure to commercialize this along the way and no, we won’t know what the negative side effects are for another 50 years but look at the USE CASE for this to make other technological hurdles easier......../s
2
u/i-get-stabby Jun 11 '19
who cares. Gorillas make the best glue and you can get it at any hardware store.
2
u/analcorn353 Jun 11 '19
If Wildkrats has taught me anything, it means that this is good.... and baby cheetahs look like honey badgers.
2
0
Jun 10 '19
576
u/theknightmanager Jun 10 '19
If anyone is wondering why spider glue is so interesting, it is something that performs wet adhesion. Not only does it perform well when wet, it generally performs better with increasing humidity, up to a threshold value that is generally related the spider's environment.
Knowing the sequence for this is great. My lab in particular has been trying for some time to identify the components of spider glue, though we are doing this through spectroscopy, as there are components of spider silk and spider glue added to the mix following transcription, so knowing the seqence doesn't tell us everything.
We can produce recombinant spider silk with silkworms, though the spinning mechanism is different and the properties don't completely match. Now that we have the genes we can at least see what happens with the recombinant glue, and how useful it may be.
Though my lab works on this, it is not a project I am working on, so I may have erred a few details.
70
u/xscorpio12x Jun 10 '19
I was curious as to how do you recombination the genes? Are they expressed in another organism (like yeasts) or in the same host ?
83
u/theknightmanager Jun 10 '19
That is not something I am familiar with, my lab focuses on the physical chemistry side of things, our partners over in biology are more familiar with that.
Full disclosure, I have not read the article I am going to link. But, based on the abstract and the figures it should give you some idea of how it is done, and if not, I am sorry, but I am sure there is a cited article that can lead down the correct path.
9
9
u/zipykido Jun 10 '19
Many labs are using E. coli or yeast (pichia) to produces spider silk proteins: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3815454/pdf/mbt0006-0651.pdf
1
27
u/enigmussnake Jun 10 '19
So a glue with excellent wet adhesion could be used for surgery/trauma?
33
u/theknightmanager Jun 10 '19
That is absolutely one of the goals, but wet adhesion in general can be applied to a number of industries and household uses.
1
u/tablett379 Jun 10 '19
Nevermind that! I'm pretty sure theres still little Dutch boys with their fingers poked in leaks in the dams.
1
Jun 10 '19
Great. I just pictured a surgeon squishing a spider butt into a wound to hold it closed. What's wrong with me?
1
u/enigmussnake Jun 10 '19
What’s wrong with that? Come out of a gunshot wound surgery and get spider powers. Profit.
24
Jun 10 '19
Questions: Wasn’t the “glue” from oysters (clams? Something barnacle-esque) also something being looked into for wet adhesion? Is Spider-glue a better form of it?
(Also thank you in advance!)
37
u/theknightmanager Jun 10 '19
I believe you're thinking of Mussels (at least that is the other organism that is frequently discussed in my lab meetings).
Underwater adhesions is much different, though. This is also something we are investigating in my lab; it is generally accepted that they bond through catechol groups. Catechols in the lab are dihydroxybenzene, but in nature they come to exist through post-translational modification (hydroxylation) of tyrosine. There are other factors at play (three dimensional conformation, electrolyte content of the system, other polar/H-bonding groups present, etc), but it is believed that the catechols are the driving force for underwater adhesion.
15
Jun 10 '19
14
u/theknightmanager Jun 10 '19
Both the undergraduate interns, and my fellow grad students participate in that. However, it is not squeezed out; we analyze the silk/glue system as it is assembled and deposited by the spider. After that, in order to analyze the glue or silk specifically, it is washed in specific ways to remove the things that they don't want to see.
5
u/fulloftrivia Jun 10 '19
Do you know if there are any organisms that can eat spiderweb silk?
20
u/theknightmanager Jun 10 '19
Spiders will eat their silk, since it is made in part from essential molecules that they themselves can't produce, and a web that has lost structural properties can be essentially recycled. I am not sure if there are other organisms which eat it, though if I had to guess I would say that there are.
5
3
u/HyperKiwi Jun 10 '19
What do you tell people that are against GMO foods? In 2019 is there really any food science hasn't modified?
I'm enjoying a honey crisp Apple as I write this.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)3
u/ToastedAluminum Jun 10 '19
So what would we first implement this to use as? My first thought based on your first paragraph was maybe to replace things like caulk in the bathroom, but I’ve honestly never heard of this so I’m sure I’m way off base! What other ways could this material be used once it goes through a few iterations?
7
u/theknightmanager Jun 10 '19
Medical adhesives would be a great first target, but also more simply for better adhesives in humid environments. Water tends to wear away traditional adhesives over time, so being able to reverse that would be huge
2
→ More replies (10)76
u/xscorpio12x Jun 10 '19
Wow those genes are really long!
11
7
u/pcream Jun 10 '19
What's more interesting is that they are apparently just 40-48 repeated motifs. I wonder if there is an advantage to having the protein structure repeated genetically rather than just producing a bunch of monomers and linking multiple peptides together post-translationally.
1
u/xscorpio12x Jun 10 '19
You could have it both ways I suppose! Maybe since this is secreted our it’s probably easier to have it as a monomer than the other way? Just my thought!
25
22
996
263
377
3
3
2
2
506
u/Henri_Dupont Jun 10 '19
Seriously, could this gene now be inserted into a bacterium and produce some incredible adhesives? Or if they sequence the gene for spider silk, could we be close to having the mythical "spiderweb to the sky" ?