Published on Web 03/13/2007
Nephila clavipes Spider Dragline Silk Microstructure Studied by Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscopy Marie-Eve Rousseau,† Daniel Herna´ ndez Cruz,‡ M. Marcia West,‡ Adam P. Hitchcock,‡ and Michel Pe´ zolet*,† Contribution from the CERSIM, CREFSIP, De´ partement de Chimie, UniVersite´ LaVal, Que´ bec, Canada G1K 7P4, and the Department of Chemistry, McMaster UniVersity, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4M1 Received October 23, 2006; E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract: Nephila clavipes dragline silk microstructure has been investigated by scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM), a technique that allows quantitative mapping of the level of orientation of the peptide groups at high spatial resolution (