New insights into the evolution of spider silk proteins illuminated by long-read transcriptomes
Kesen Zhu, Shiyi Zhou, Mo Lyu, Jiahao Xiang, Shaohan Niu, Yongping Huang, Lei Gao, Anjiang Tan, Hui Xiang
This study uses long-read transcriptomes to identify ancestral spider silk proteins and their evolutionary trajectories, revealing how they diversified into modern silk types.
bioRxiv · Feb 5, 2026 · PreprintEvolutionary Biology