Spider dragline (major ampullate) silk outperforms virtually all other natural and manmade
materials in terms of tensile strength and toughness. For this reason, the mass-production of …

The spider genus Latrodectus includes the widely known black widows, notorious because
of the extreme potency of their neurotoxic venom. The genus has a worldwide distribution …

Background The duplication of genes can occur through various mechanisms and is thought
to make a major contribution to the evolutionary diversification of organisms. There is …

Background Spidroins are a unique family of large, structural proteins that make up the bulk
of spider silk fibers. Due to the highly variable nature of their repetitive sequences, spidroin …

Background Arthropods comprise the largest and most diverse phylum on Earth and play
vital roles in nearly every ecosystem. Their diversity stems in part from variations on a …

… Author links open overlay panel Jessica E Garb 1 , Prashant P Sharma 2 , Nadia A Ayoub
3 … Richards, JE Garb … TH Clarke, JE Garb, CY Hayashi, P. Arensburger, NA Ayoub …

Black widow spiders (members of the genus Latrodectus) are widely feared because of their
potent neurotoxic venom. α-Latrotoxin is the vertebrate-specific toxin responsible for the …

Spider silk proteins (fibroins) are renowned for their extraordinary mechanical properties and
biomimetic potential. Despite extensive evolutionary, ecological, and industrial interest in …

Background Animal venoms attract enormous interest given their potential for
pharmacological discovery and understanding the evolution of natural chemistries. Next-generation …

Spider silk fibers have impressive mechanical properties and are primarily composed of
highly repetitive structural proteins (termed spidroins) encoded by a single gene family. Most …