Since they are a simple indicator of whether it worked or not, fluorescent gene inserts such as those of the red fluorescent protein are usually included into the experimental organism.
This was successful if the silk glows under particular light. “We have shown, for the first time worldwide, that CRISpen-Cas9 can be used to incorporate a desired sequence into spider silk proteins.
So enabling the functionalisation of these silk fibres,” Professor Dr. Thomas Scheibel, Chair of Biomaterials at the University of Bayreuth and senior author of the paper, said in a statement.
For materials science research, the ability to apply CRISpen gene-editing to spider silk is quite exciting; for instance, it may be utilized to further raise the already high tensile strength of spider silk. Said Schebral.
Therefore, while most of us are occupied attempting to gently lead spiders out of the bathtub, scientists are effectively busy literally giving them a glow-up.
