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      Silk physico-chemical variability and mechanical robustness facilitates intercontinental invasibility of a spider

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          Abstract

          There are substantive problems associated with invasive species, including threats to endemic organisms and biodiversity. Understanding the mechanisms driving invasions is thus critical. Variable extended phenotypes may enable animals to invade into novel environments. We explored here the proposition that silk variability is a facilitator of invasive success for the highly invasive Australian house spider, Badumna longinqua. We compared the physico-chemical and mechanical properties and underlying gene expressions of its major ampullate (MA) silk between a native Sydney population and an invasive counterpart from Montevideo, Uruguay. We found that while differential gene expressions might explain the differences in silk amino acid compositions and protein nanostructures, we did not find any significant differences in silk mechanical properties across the populations. Our results accordingly suggest that B. longinqua’s silk remains functionally robust despite underlying physico-chemical and genetic variability as the spider expands its range across continents. They also imply that a combination of silk physico-chemical plasticity combined with mechanical robustness might contribute more broadly to spider invasibilities.

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          Most cited references44

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          Evolutionary genetics of invasive species

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            Characterizing ecosystem-level consequences of biological invasions: the role of ecosystem engineers

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              Uncovering the structure–function relationship in spider silk

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                sean.blamires@unsw.edu.au
                Journal
                Sci Rep
                Sci Rep
                Scientific Reports
                Nature Publishing Group UK (London )
                2045-2322
                13 September 2019
                13 September 2019
                2019
                : 9
                : 13273
                Affiliations
                [1 ]ISNI 0000000121657640, GRID grid.11630.35, Entomología, , Universidad de la República de Uruguay, ; Montevideo, Uruguay
                [2 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2323 2857, GRID grid.482688.8, Laboratorio Ecología del Comportamiento (IIBCE), ; Montevideo, Uruguay
                [3 ]Ciencias Biológicas PEDECIBA, Docente Grado 2 Entomología, CURE, Treinta y Tres, Uruguay
                [4 ]ISNI 0000000121657640, GRID grid.11630.35, Centro Universitario de Rivera, Universidad de la República, ; Rivera, Uruguay
                [5 ]Deakin University, Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM), Waurn Ponds Campus, Geelong, 3220 Australia
                [6 ]ISNI 0000 0004 4902 0432, GRID grid.1005.4, Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, , The University of New South Wales, ; Sydney, NSW 2052 Australia
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8882-6226
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5953-3723
                Article
                49463
                10.1038/s41598-019-49463-9
                6744404
                31519928
                0e7a0769-9a66-493b-a0f4-5cfc6b9d212d
                © The Author(s) 2019

                Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

                History
                : 24 January 2019
                : 24 August 2019
                Funding
                Funded by: FundRef https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001109, The Hermon Slade Foundation;
                Award ID: HSF17/6
                Award Recipient :
                Categories
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                © The Author(s) 2019

                Uncategorized
                ecology,invasive species
                Uncategorized
                ecology, invasive species

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