Regenerated silk fibers: Structural studies and solid state NMR techniques for efficient multiple distance determinations in proteins

Material Science is the science of understanding the relationship between the molecular level structure of a material and its macroscopic properties. Such research requires both the ability to determine molecular structure and the ability to control and modify the molecular structure. The present research into silks, especially the dragline silk from the spider Nephila clavipes , is occurring at a time when these two criteria are beginning to be met for proteins like spider silk. Genetic engineering has evolved to the point where material scientists have full control over the primary sequence of amino acids that comprise proteins. In addition, solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques exist which allow us to probe molecular structure.; This work applies solid state NMR to the study of the structure of silk fibers. In particular, we focus on techniques of fiber regeneration from solution. The purpose is not only to develop the techniques by which genetically engineered fibers could be spun into fibers for mass production but also as a tool into fundamental silk research. Results on these regenerated fibers show a correlation between the fraction of the silk's alanine residues which are in the beta-sheet conformation and the ultimate tensile strength of the fibers.; In addition, in a clever mating of the fiber regeneration technique and the solid state NMR distance measurement experiment, rotational echo double resonance (REDOR), we investigate the supramolecular topology of the alanine beta-sheet crystals. Even though the REDOR technique has failings for the complicated ISn spin systems found in the silk samples, a qualitative analysis does indicate that the beta-sheet crystals are intermolecular.; Finally, we investigate a new class of REDOR-like experiments which are designed to overcome the failings of REDOR in ISn spin systems. Experimental data is shown to validate these ideas. An alternate pulse sequence is also introduced and verified with experimental data. This pulse sequence highlights the similarities between multiple quantum NMR and REDOR. From this connection, we name this new class of experiments Multiple Quantum-REDOR. These experiments should allow for efficient simultaneous multiple distance determinations in proteins.