Scientists have finally uncovered the genetics that allow spiders to create their ultra-fine and strong silk that could one day replace current surgical adhesives.

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427325.200-sticky-future-for-the-spider-suture.html

And the media ****s it up again - the discovery is the glue, not the thread. We already know the genetics of the threads.

I actually recall that a while back a group actually cloned the genes into E. coli and tried to create spider silk heterologously.

And the media ****s it up again - the discovery is the glue, not the thread.

Not in this case. It was the OP who misconstrued the article to being about silk. From the cited article, "The ultra-strong glue that spiders use to trap their prey has given up some of its genetic secrets, raising the hope that similar substances could one day be synthesised to produce surgical adhesives." The article does mention the spider web, but only in the context of spiders secrete this glue onto the web.

Not in this case. It was the OP who misconstrued the article to being about silk. From the cited article, "The ultra-strong glue that spiders use to trap their prey has given up some of its genetic secrets, raising the hope that similar substances could one day be synthesised to produce surgical adhesives." The article does mention the spider web, but only in the context of spiders secrete this glue onto the web.

 

I did try to correct it but the posts seem to time out so I could no longer edit it.

Sorry, there's a 6 hour limit. We occasionally get people who go back and make all of their posts blank just to annoy us.

 

Although vB now allows us to see post revision histories, it'd be annoying to have to go back through manually and fix those sorts of things.