Fig. 1: Loxosceles spider, its silk, and the investigated samples.
From: Protein secondary structure in spider silk nanofibrils
a False-colored scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of a strand of the ribbon silk of a Loxosceles (recluse) spider, which is entirely composed of nanofibrils (n = 5 independent SEM experiments)6. b A female Chilean recluse (Loxosceles laeta) spider. c Atomic force microscope (AFM) topography image of a Loxosceles silk ribbon (n = 9 independent AFM experiments). The white arrows indicate the “X” and “Z” directions in the plane of the ribbon, perpendicular and parallel to the ribbon axis, respectively. Inset: nanofibrils parallel to the ribbon axis Z are revealed at higher AFM magnifications. Color bars: 0–100 nm; inset: 0–12 nm. d, e Optical microscopy (OM) images of the FTIR (d) (n = 6 independent OM experiments) and Raman (e) (n = 4 independent OM experiments) samples. e Optical microscopy image of a location tested on the Raman sample.
