«PARRISH PERSECTIVES: JOE ZUCKER: LIFE & TIMES
OF AN ORB WEAVER» continues through April 26.
One
of the orb weaver's silk genes is even expressed in the spider's venom gland.
But the velvet spider genome, together with
that of the orb weaver and the house spider, has exposed an unexpected variety of silk genes — «a lot more than we thought,» Coddington says.
Others include species
of orb weaver, especially those from the genus Celaenia, says spider expert Robert Whyte.
-LSB-...] It was not long after my dive into the world
of orb weavers that I started taking an even deeper interest in all spiders.
They have also looked for the activity of similar genes in the silk glands and other tissues of cobweb - weaving spiders, a subset
of orb weavers that build 3D webs instead of flat ones.
Not exact matches
For example, what math was used to calculate the capability
of dragline silk from an
orb weaver spider that is lighter than cotton, yet ounce for ounce stronger than steel, tougher than kevlar (used in bullet - proof vests), that if the silk were 0.4 inch thick with strands 1.6 inches apart and enlarged the size
of a football field, could stop a jumbo jet in flight, that is flying at an average speed
of about 600 mph?
And I am glad you are not into the spider smashing business, I get so upset when I think
of garden
orb weavers being killed, yeah I've walked through many a sticky web only to worry where the heck is the spider, but they are harmless and very very unlikely to bite you, they are scaredy cats!
* Correction 2 November, 2:30 p.m.: An earlier version
of this story incorrectly described the silk by some
orb weavers as woolly when viscid is accurate.
Contrary to earlier studies, the analyses divided
orb weavers, the many spider species that make the classic spiral webs and cobwebs, into two groupings and put them on very different branches
of the tree.
Researchers have sequenced full genomes
of three species — the golden
orb -
weaver, the African social velvet spider, and the common house spider — and have done more limited genetic and protein studies on many others.
Orb weavers have seven types
of silk glands for making webs and egg cases and capturing prey.
Hayashi and her colleagues have recently identified which silk genes are active in each
of the golden
orb -
weaver's seven types
of glands.
Orb weavers that produce fuzzy, sticky fibers called cribellate silk ended up in a part of the tree that includes many spiders that don't make webs at all, whereas orb weavers that make a viscid silk are on their own bran
Orb weavers that produce fuzzy, sticky fibers called cribellate silk ended up in a part
of the tree that includes many spiders that don't make webs at all, whereas
orb weavers that make a viscid silk are on their own bran
orb weavers that make a viscid silk are on their own branch.
So she was happy to join with Benjamin Voight from the University
of Pennsylvania, Ingi Agnarsson from the University
of Vermont in Burlington, and others to decipher and characterize the genome
of the golden
orb -
weaver (Nephila clavipes).
To study their rhythms, Darrell Moore
of East Tennessee State University and his team recorded the activity patterns
of different
orb -
weaver species.
The missing sector
orb weaver, however, is more
of an indoors spider.
Two
of the most common are the missing sector
orb weaver (Zygiella x-notata) and the lace webbed spider (Amaurobius sp.).
Nephila clavipes spiders (Araneae: Nephilidae) keep track
of captured prey counts: Testing for a sense
of numerosity in an
orb -
weaver.