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TitleCryo-ET comparison of the hierarchical ultrastructure of silkworm, spider, and artificial silk fibers.
Journal, issue, pagesNat Commun, Vol. 17, Issue 1, Year 2026
Publish dateMar 7, 2026
AuthorsKai Song / Haonan Zhang / Xueli Zhang / Yan Li / Ping Zhu /
PubMed AbstractSpider and silkworm silks are renowned for their exceptional mechanical properties, which arises from their ultrastructural organization. However, this architecture remains incompletely understood. ...Spider and silkworm silks are renowned for their exceptional mechanical properties, which arises from their ultrastructural organization. However, this architecture remains incompletely understood. Here, we apply cryo-electron tomography to examine the hierarchical organization of silkworm, spider, and artificial silks. In silkworm silk, we observe nanofibrils of ~3.6 nm in diameter, interconnected by abundant bridges and representing the smallest fibrillar features currently accessible by cryo-ET. These nanofibrils align with the fiber axis and are organized into a herringbone pattern, with stacked layers building the micron-scale filament. Spider silk displays densely packed nanofibrils with near-perfect axial alignment and minimal voids. In contrast, silkworm silk shows regionally heterogeneous gaps, whereas artificial silk lacks the ordered packing characteristic of natural materials. These observations provide a structural basis for understanding silk formation and may guide future biomimetic fiber design.
External linksNat Commun / PubMed:41794804 / PubMed Central
MethodsEM (subtomogram averaging) / EM (tomography)
Resolution20.4 - 24.1 Å
Structure data

EMDB-65681: Structure of the averaged natural silk fibroin nanofibril
Method: EM (subtomogram averaging) / Resolution: 24.1 Å

EMDB-65682: Averaged map of fibroin in silkworm silk
Method: EM (subtomogram averaging) / Resolution: 20.4 Å

EMDB-65705: Tomogram of fibroin and sericin in silkworm silk
Method: EM (tomography)

EMDB-65706: Tomogram of fibroin in silkworm silk
Method: EM (tomography)

EMDB-65708: Tomogram of natural silk fibroin extracted from posterior silk glands
Method: EM (tomography)

Source
  • Bombyx mori (domestic silkworm)

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