Synchrotron FTIR Microspectroscopy of Single Natural Silk Fibers. Biomacromolecules, 2011, 12(9): 3344-3349-Xin (Terry) Chen

Synchrotron FTIR (S-FTIR) microspectroscopy was used to monitor the silk protein conformation in a range of single natural silk fibers (domestic and wild silkworm, and spider dragline silk). With the selection of suitable aperture size, we obtained high resolution S-FTIR spectra capable of semi-quantitative analysis of protein secondary structures. For the first time, we have determined from S-FTIR the β-sheet content in a range of natural single silk fibers, 28 ± 4%, 23 ± 2%, and 17± 4% in Bombyx mori, Antheraea pernyi, and Nephila edulis silks, respectively. The trend of β-sheet content in different silk fibers from the current study accords quite well with published data determined by XRD, Raman and ¹³C NMR. Our results indicate that S-FTIR microspectroscopy method has considerable potential for the study of single natural silk fibers.

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