Stretching of Bombyx mori Silk Protein in Flow

Molecules

PeterR. Laity¹  Chris Holland¹  Charley Schaefer²  TomC. B. McLeish² 

[1] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sir Robert Hadfield Building, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK;Department of Physics, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK;

关键词: sticky rouse;    tube model;    brownian dynamics;    silk registration;   

DOI  :  10.3390/molecules26061663

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The flow-induced self-assembly of entangled Bombyx mori silk proteins is hypothesised to be aided by the ‘registration’ of aligned protein chains using intermolecularly interacting ‘sticky’ patches. This suggests that upon chain alignment, a hierarchical network forms that collectively stretches and induces nucleation in a precisely controlled way. Through the lens of polymer physics, we argue that if all chains would stretch to a similar extent, a clear correlation length of the stickers in the direction of the flow emerges, which may indeed favour such a registration effect. Through simulations in both extensional flow and shear, we show that there is, on the other hand, a very broad distribution of protein–chain stretch, which suggests the registration of proteins is not directly coupled to the applied strain, but may be a slow statistical process. This qualitative prediction seems to be consistent with the large strains (i.e., at long time scales) required to induce gelation in our rheological measurements under constant shear. We discuss our perspective of how the flow-induced self-assembly of silk may be addressed by new experiments and model development.

【 授权许可】

Unknown