Fig. 1: Mechanism underlying silk transformation from soluble protein into solid nanofilaments. | Nature Communications

Fig. 1: Mechanism underlying silk transformation from soluble protein into solid nanofilaments.

From: Micro and nano-scale compartments guide the structural transition of silk protein monomers into silk fibers

Fig. 1: Mechanism underlying silk transformation from soluble protein into solid nanofilaments.The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

a Schematic representation of the five regions of the silkworm silk gland (top panel) and their corresponding silk protein supramolecular phases (bottom panel): (i) posterior region, where protein monomers are synthesized, (ii) posterior-middle region, where protein microcompartments were detected, (iii) middle-middle, where appearance of colloidosomal microcompartments was observed, (iv) anterior-middle, where the presence of nanocompartments was detected, (v) anterior region, filled with silk nanofibrils, and (vi) spun microfiber via spinneret. b AFM image of protein monomers. c Optical microscopy image of microcompartments. d Optical microscopy image of colloidosomal microcompartments. e AFM image of nanocompartments, f AFM image of silk nanofibrils. g SEM image of the spun silk microfiber, composed of a fibroin core and a sericin coating layer. The scale bars are shown at the bottom of each image.

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