Project:

Using DNA Barcoding to determine the relationship between spider silk strength and spider species

Students:

Pravigna Unguturu, Gia Pisani, Amelia Doxsee, Alana Carpenter

School:

Sayville High School, Suffolk

Mentors:

Anthony DeAngelis

Abstract:

Spiders are very well known for many different things including their ability to make silk. Spiders produce silk from the spinnerets in their bodies which are located on the underside of their opisthosoma (lower abdomen), this is where most of the digestive system is also located. The spinneret contains a spigot at the end of it which is like a nozzle. This is the part of the spinneret that connects to the various silk glands and combines different filaments to create multiple different types of silk that are used for different things depending on what the spider needs it for. Although a spider changes the types of silk it makes, different types of spiders contain different filaments and make different types of silk. This is due to the DNA sequence that they contain. The part of the DNA that declares what type of silk they produce is called the spidroin. The spidroin gene is expressed in the silk glands of a spider and this produces the spidroin which is also the main protein that make

Poster:

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