MrBishop
Well-Known Member
Anyone who has ever walked into a spider's web knows that the silk is deceptively strong, despite its gossamer appearance. Dragline silk, which spiders use to crawl down from ceiling to floor, is the strongest of all. Weight for weight it is actually stronger than steel, holding over 280,000,000kg per square metre (400,000 pounds per square inch) without breaking.
Unfortunately, it's very difficult to farm spiders for their silk because they tend to eat each other. So scientists have tried a variety of different methods to produce the silk without arachnid help. One of the more successful relies on stealing the spider's silk gene and putting it into something more friendly – like a goat.
Spider-Goats
In an unlikely coupling, genetic engineers have now bred goats that have spider silk genes inside them. By doing this, they can harvest the silk proteins from the goat's milk (silky milk, anyone?). The silk gene was just one of 70,000 that make up the DNA blueprint for building a normal goat.
Goat's silky milk
In adult female goats, the silk gene is activated only while the animal is producing milk. One goat can produce about 7g of silk per day.
Goat-link
Unfortunately, it's very difficult to farm spiders for their silk because they tend to eat each other. So scientists have tried a variety of different methods to produce the silk without arachnid help. One of the more successful relies on stealing the spider's silk gene and putting it into something more friendly – like a goat.
Spider-Goats
In an unlikely coupling, genetic engineers have now bred goats that have spider silk genes inside them. By doing this, they can harvest the silk proteins from the goat's milk (silky milk, anyone?). The silk gene was just one of 70,000 that make up the DNA blueprint for building a normal goat.
Goat's silky milk
In adult female goats, the silk gene is activated only while the animal is producing milk. One goat can produce about 7g of silk per day.
Goat-link
