Peter’s Day

Under the microscope, the structures of the two kinds of webbing were generally quite similar, both resembling the silk produced by black widow spiders in nature. Peter had learned from the literature that scientists at the University of California, Riverside had once conducted detailed research into the genetic code of black widow spider silk and discovered that it contained two key proteins: Masp1 and Masp2. Both were serine proteases and components of the lectin pathway of complement activation.