Spider silk has a unique combination of mechanical properties that make it one of the toughest materials known. Now US chemists have used solid-state NMR spectroscopy to probe the structural features responsible for the silk's strength in an approach that could be applied to a range ofbiopolymers.rnSpider dragline silk is made from two proteins. Its strength is thoughtrnto come from sections of protein in a P-sheet conformation, while the elasticity comes from helical regions. Knowing the relative proportions of these conformations, and how this correlates to the amino acid sequence, is important for understanding the silk's mechanical properties and for developing synthetic silk.
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