| abstract |
As transgenic silkworms genetically engineered to carry and express the chimeric spider silk protein gene, the chimeric spider silk protein gene is a chimeric spider silk protein having a spider silk domain specific to spider silk elastic motif sequences and / or spider silk strength motif sequences A transgenic silkworm encoding a protein is disclosed. Also provided is an improved silkworm silk fiber exhibiting improved (tensile) strength and elastic properties compared to natural silkworm silk fibers. Also provided is a method of using a piggyback vector system and a helper plasmid as an improved method of producing chimeric silk fibers using the transgenic silkworms disclosed herein. Gene expression cassettes are provided and are used to produce a variety of synthetic spider silk coding sequences (spider 2, spider 4, spider 6, spider 8). Piggyback vector systems are used to transform mutant silkworms in order to introduce chimeric spider silk genes into silkworms in the presence of helper plasmids to provide stable transformants. Thus, these transgenic silkworms provide organisms that produce spider silk efficiently, which is suitable for commercial production of silk fibers. |