Journal article
Mechanical properties of silk of the Australian golden orb weavers Nephila pilipes and N. plumipes
Biology Open, Vol.7, bio029249
2018
Abstract
Silks from orb-weaving spiders are exceptionally tough, producing a model polymer for biomimetic fibre development. The mechanical properties of naturally-spun silk threads from two species of Australian orb-weavers, Nephila pilipes and N. plumipes, were examined here in relation to overall thread diameter, the size and number of fibres within threads, and spider size. N. pilipes, the larger of the two species, had significantly tougher silk with higher strain capacity than its smaller congener, producing threads with average toughness of 150 MJ m-3, despite thread diameter, mean fibre diameter and number of fibres per thread not differing significantly between the two species. Within N. pilipes, smaller silk fibres were produced by larger spiders, yielding tougher threads. In contrast, while spider size was correlated with thread diameter in N. plumipes, there were no clear patterns relating to silk toughness, which suggests that the differences in properties between the silk of the two species arise through differing molecular structure. Our results support previous studies that found the mechanical properties of silk differ between distantly related spider species, and extends on that work to show that the mechanical and physical properties of silk from more closely related species can also differ remarkably.
Details
- Title
- Mechanical properties of silk of the Australian golden orb weavers Nephila pilipes and N. plumipes
- Authors
- Genevieve Kerr (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringHelen F Nahrung (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringAaron Wiegand (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringJoanna Kristoffersen (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringPeter Killen (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringCameron Brown (Author) - University of Oxford, United KingdomJoanne Macdonald (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
- Publication details
- Biology Open, Vol.7, bio029249; 6
- Publisher
- Company of Biologists Ltd.
- Date published
- 2018
- DOI
- 10.1242/bio.029249
- ISSN
- 2046-6390
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
- Organisation Unit
- Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering; School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Health and Sport Sciences - Legacy; Forest Industries Research Centre; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Forest Research Institute; Centre for Bioinnovation
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99450477202621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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