Transcriptomic sequencing of Caerostris darwini silk glands

The goal of this study is to discover gene transcripts expressed in the silk glands of Caerostris darwini (Darwin's bark spider) that encode proteins making up this species' dragline silk. The dragline of C. darwini is the toughest spider silk measured to date. Spider silks are primarily composed of repetitive structural proteins known as spidroins. Accordingly, this study is using high-throughput sequencing approaches to identify transcripts encoding spidroins and other proteins that are expressed in the dragline producing major ampullate silk glands of C. darwini.