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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (24970)	6/29/2005 10:46:23 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361441

The Chinese were lying; silk comes from goats... Genetically Altered Goats Produce Spider Silk Scientists at Nexia Biotechnologies in Montreal have discovered what happens when you cross a spider with a goat. The answer: a stronger bulletproof vest. The company has bred dairy goats with a spider in order to produce a unique protein. This protein will be extracted from the milk to produce silk fibers, called BioSteel, for bulletproof vests, medical supplies and space equipment. Earlier research performed at the University of Wisconsin found that spider silk is an ultra-strong material that has the flexibility to hold 400,000 pounds per square inch without breaking. The fiber created by spinning this silk would have several industrial and medical applications, such as making lighter and stronger bulletproof vests, improving the strength of automotive and aerospace components, and providing more biodegradable and stronger wound closures. These silk fibers are composed of proteins that are produced in the spider's silk glands, which are anatomically similar to a goat's mammary glands. In both glands, epithelial cells manufacture and secrete water-soluble, complex proteins in large amounts. Photo courtesy of Nexia Biotechnologies Spider cells are injected into a goat's egg. Nexia took this research and applied it to dairy goats by injecting a spider gene into a goat's one-cell egg before it was fertilized. This spider gene then becomes just one of 70,000 genes in a goat's body. In adult female goats, the spider gene is activated during lactation and turns off when the animal is finished lactating. The result is that one goat can produce five grams of silk proteins per liter and can produce up to a liter and half per day. Before now, the ability to harvest large quantities of the silk from spiders has been hampered by the small amount of silk spiders produce. This new technology, however, enables the genetically altered goats to produce large quantities of spider silk proteins in their milk. The proteins can then be extracted from the milk and spun into fibers. In January, Nexia announced the birth of two "BioSteel Goats" named Webster and Peter, the first goats confirmed to carry a single spider silk gene. On June 19, 150 of these genetically altered goats arrived at a former Air Force base in Plattsburgh, N.Y., where they will be housed in 15 old weapons-storage buildings that have been converted to holding pens, reports the Plattsburgh Press-Republican. science.howstuffworks.com