Table 1.

Comparison of silk spinning between spiders and B. mori silkworms

		Spider	Silkworm
Spinning conditions	Shear stress	Yes (Higher)	Yes (Lower)
	Kosmotropic ion-Potassium	Yes	Yes
	Acidification (pH)	7.6 to 5.7	8.2 to 6.2
	Dehydration	Yes	Yes
Spinning gland	Tapering Geometry (for Shear stress)	100 μm to <10 μm	400 μm to 50 μm
	Carbonic anhydrase and ATPase driven proton pumps (for pH)	Yes	Yes
	The microvilli (for removing water)	Yes	Yes
Spinning dope	Concentration	High (>30%)	High (>30%)
	Liquid crystal spinning	Yes	Yes
	Molecular conformation and orientation	Yes	Yes
	Repeated motif	AAAAAA	GAGAGS
	Beta-sheet crystal size	Smaller	Larger
	Polymer melts-like Rheology	Yes	Yes