Blueprint for a High-Performance Biomaterial: Full-Length Spider Dragline Silk Genes
Figure 4
Comparison of N-termini, C-termini and repeat units of spider silk proteins.
(A) Alignment of published N-terminal amino acid sequences. Amino acids shared by ≥50% of proteins are highlighted in grey. Gaps are represented by dashes and missing characters by question marks. (B) Alignment of corresponding C-terminal amino acid sequences. Taxa with an asterisk result from partial sequencing and are presumed to belong to the same locus as the N-terminal sequences. (C) MP trees of N and C-terminal encoding sequences treating gaps as a fifth state and employing midpoint rooting. Left tree length = 1449 (N-terminus); Right tree length = 838 (C-terminus). Dots represent nodes with >75% bootstrap support in all MP and ML analyses and >95% Bayesian posterior probability. (D) Exemplar repeat units for each of the major ampullate fibroins and representative TuSp1 and Flag repeats. Amino acid motifs are colored as in Figure 2. Abbreviations: LhMaSp2, Latrodectus hesperus MaSp2 (EF595245); LhMaSp1, L. hesperus MaSp1 (EF595246); LgMaSp1, L. geometricus MaSp1 (5′ sequence: DQ059133S1, 3′ sequence: DQ059133S2); NiMaSp2, Nephila inaurata madagascariensis MaSp2 (5′ sequence: DQ059135, 3′ sequence: AF350278); AtMaSp2, Argiope trifasciata MaSp2 (5′ sequence: DQ059136, 3′ sequence: AF350266); EaMaSp1; Euprosthenops australis MaSp1 (AM259067); LhTuSp1, L. hesperus TuSp1 (5′ sequence: DQ379383, 3′ sequence: AY953070); AbCySp1, A. bruennichi CySp1 AB242144; AbCySp2, A. bruennichi CySp2 (AB242145); NcaCySp1, N. clavata CySp1 (5′ sequence: AB218974, 3′ sequence: AB218973); NiFlag, N. i. madagascariensis Flag (5′ sequence: AF218623S1, 3′ sequence: AF218623S2); NclFlag, N. clavipes Flag (5′ sequence: AF027972, 3′ sequence: AF027973).