USU Researchers Investigating the Potential for Bee Silk to Help Reduce the Need for Plastics

For more than a decade, Utah State University scholars have pioneered research on the production and structure of synthetic spider silk. Building on lessons learned, the researchers, in the lab of Biology faculty member Justin Jones, are branching into organisms beyond the eight-legged arachnids to explore a broader range of organisms as potential candidates for production of replicable, recombinant fibers.
“Spider silks have exceptional mechanical properties, including high tensile strength, elasticity and biocompatibility, which make them attractive for biomaterials research and potential applications,” says Jones, assistant professor in USU’s Department of Biology. “However, manufacturing commercial-scale quantities of synthetic spider silk remains a challenge. So, we’re exploring a range of creatures that produce fibers with equal or superior qualities.”
Among these organisms are the eel-like hagfish, which emits a gooey, fibrous slime when threatened by predators. Another marine animal that’s captured the lab’s interest is the transparent ctenophore, known colloquially as the comb jelly, which secretes a fibrous sticky substance to help reel in prey.
In addition to these rather exotic creatures, undergrad researcher Jackson Morley and doctoral student researcher Oran Wasserman, both Jones Lab members, are exploring an organism more familiar to Utahns: the bee.
“Oran heard, from fellow Biology doctoral student Mary-Kate Williams, about a solitary bee that produces silk and is heavily studied at the USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect Research Unit here at USU,” says Morley, a USU Honors student and Aggie First Scholar. “Together with Dr. Jones, we sat down and developed a few projects to study the natural silk, and to potentially recombinantly express the proteins composing the silk.”
These solitary bees, known as blue orchard bees and by their scientific name Osmia lignaria, begin their lives as larvae encased in tough-fibered cocoons, he says. Rather than hives, the ingenious masons use clay to construct partitioned nests to hold and protect the cocoons in harsh conditions.
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