| |
Scientists at the University of Wyoming have explored the secret of the sticky nature of the spider webs.
According to researchers, these findings could lead to the development of surgical adhesives.
The spiders secrete a very strong glue like substance which is used by the creature to capture the preys. This adhesive like substance is based on a complex sugary polymer called glycoprotein. However, the chemistry of that sticky substance was unclear till now to the scientists.
On their development, the researchers extracted m-RNA from the glue secreting cells from the spider web. Then they created a complementary DNA sequence from it to identify the genes responsible for the glue creation.
The scientists working on this experiment have shown that there are two proteins responsible for the formation of the sticky glycoprotein. Each protein is consists of about 110 amino acids and each one is encoded by genes on opposite strands of same sequence of DNA.
Omer Choresh, a leading researcher said that a new class of biocompatible glues could be produced by cloning the genes and then amplifying them.
These findings have been published in the science journal, The New Scientist.
