Artificial egg stalks made of a recombinantly produced lacewing silk protein.

ABSTRACT

Rigid threads Lacewings protect their eggs from predators by laying them on small stalks (see picture). The stalks have good mechanical properties and, unlike most other silks, a cross ß structure. An artificial egg stalk was produced using a designed recombinant variant of a sequenced lacewing egg stalk protein, and it attained 90 % of the tensile strength of a natural egg stalk.