Loss of Phosphate Determines the Versatility of a Spider Orb-web Glue Ball

Spiders capture their prey by weaving an “invisible” orb-web that has both adhesive and fixed properties. Different types of silk in the orb-web have different functions, wherein the key to capturing a prey is the ball-like glue (glue ball), which coats the silk strands. This glue ball has highly ve...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Analytical Sciences 2019/06/10, Vol.35(6), pp.645-649
Main Authors: ZHAO, Yue, MORITA, Masato, SAKAMOTO, Tetsuo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analytical Chemistry
biomolecular engineering
Chemistry
FIB
Glycoproteins
intelligent materials
Ions
mechanochemistry
Phosphates
Prey
Salts
Secondary ion mass spectrometry
Silk
Spider silk
Spiders
TOF-SIMS
Versatility
Viscosity
Webs
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Spiders capture their prey by weaving an “invisible” orb-web that has both adhesive and fixed properties. Different types of silk in the orb-web have different functions, wherein the key to capturing a prey is the ball-like glue (glue ball), which coats the silk strands. This glue ball has highly versatile properties, but the mechanisms leading to its versatility remain unclear. The salts found in the web have been previously suggested to play an important role in terms of viscosity, not water. However, the distribution of salt and water in the glue ball has not yet been directly observed. Here, we mapped the salts in different states using a homemade time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometer (TOF-SIMS) with a high lateral resolution. To our surprise, the glue ball was found to contain little water. The functional transformation of the glue ball from a viscous glycoprotein (capturing prey) to a hardened protein (retaining prey) relies solely on the stimulation of mechanical forces. The phosphate is a key factor for its versatility.
ISSN:0910-6340
1348-2246
DOI:10.2116/analsci.18P480