Scientists in Japan have succeeded in developing an artificial spider silk that could be upscaled for factory production with major implications for the apparel industry.
The research team at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS), developed the spider silk from photosynthetic bacteria, paving the way for a new era of photosynthetic bio-factories delivering stable output.
“We have already received many offers from the apparel sector,” explains lead researcher Keiji Numata. “If we can conquer this new and fast-developing field, I think we can help to expand possibilities within the textile industry.”
Spider-produced threads known as ‘draglines’ have long been admired for their light weight and toughness – when combined closely in a material researchers have claimed they are stronger than steel and more durable than Kevlar, the material used in bullet-proof vests.
Furthermore, such silks are biodegradable and biocompatible – good news for the environment.
However, while in nature spiders produce draglines in milliseconds, they do not make enough to harvest for commercial uses. Researchers have struggled to replicate the natural production process and high mechanical strength commanded by spider silk in artificial systems.
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By GlobalDataHowever, Numata and colleagues at CSRS may have found a solution to manufacturing this potentially invaluable fibre. They have focused their research on the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodovulum sulfidophilum, which Numata says is ideal for establishing a sustainable bio-factory because it grows in seawater, requires carbon dioxide and nitrogen in the atmosphere, and uses solar energy, all of which are in abundant and unlimited supply, especially in an island nation like Japan.
By genetically engineering the bacterium they were able to produce spidroins – the main proteins in spider silk and the component responsible for its toughness.
Numata describes the completion of a spinning system that mimics that used by spiders in nature and the mass-production of spider silk dragline proteins as “a very near-future step,” adding that eventual production would provide several advantages for the textile industry.
“For example, we can produce a very sustainable fibre, unlike silkworm silk harvesting, most of which requires the silkworms to be killed,” he says. “We believe it is possible to be even more sustainable.”
In apparel applications, textile fibres based on the properties of spider silk have the potential to be lightweight, flexible, resilient and extraordinarily strong, yet commercial scale production has so far proved elusive.
Earlier this year Asics Ventures Corporation, an investment subsidiary of Japanese sporting goods giant Asics, took a stake in Israeli startup Seevix Material Sciences, which develops and manufactures synthetic spider silk. And a Finnish university has researched how a combination of wood fibres and spider silk could replace plastic in the textile industry.
Last year Kraig Biocraft Laboratories was also given the go-ahead to expand production of its spider silk based fibres in Vietnam. The company has also been working with US fabric maker Polartec to bring the first materials made from recombinant spider silk to the performance apparel market.
