Resilin is an elastomer

Elastomer

An elastomer is a polymer with the property of viscoelasticity , generally having notably low Young's modulus and high yield strain compared with other materials. The term, which is derived from elastic polymer, is often used interchangeably with the term rubber, although the latter is preferred...

ic protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

 found in many insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s. The protein was first discovered by Torkel Weis-Fogh

Torkel Weis-Fogh

Torkel Weis-Fogh was a Danish zoologist.He was born in Aarhus and educated at Copenhagen University. He was research assistant to the Danish Nobel Prize winning physiologist August Krogh, where he began his study of the desert locust. After Krogh's death in 1949 Weis-Fogh worked in the laboratory...

 in the locust wing-hinge. As of 2005 it is the most efficient elastic protein known (Elvin et al., 2005). The elastic efficiency of the resilin isolated from locust

Locust

Locusts are the swarming phase of short-horned grasshoppers of the family Acrididae. These are species that can breed rapidly under suitable conditions and subsequently become gregarious and migratory...

 tendon

Tendon

A tendon is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that usually connects muscle to bone and is capable of withstanding tension. Tendons are similar to ligaments and fasciae as they are all made of collagen except that ligaments join one bone to another bone, and fasciae connect muscles to other...

 has been reported to be 97 % (only 3 % of stored energy is lost as heat). It has no regular structure but its randomly coiled chains are crosslinked by di- and tri-tyrosine

Tyrosine

Tyrosine or 4-hydroxyphenylalanine, is one of the 22 amino acids that are used by cells to synthesize proteins. Its codons are UAC and UAU. It is a non-essential amino acid with a polar side group...

 links at the right spacing to confer the elasticity

Elasticity (physics)

In physics, elasticity is the physical property of a material that returns to its original shape after the stress that made it deform or distort is removed. The relative amount of deformation is called the strain....

 needed to propel some jumping insects distances up to 150 times their length (as found in fleas). Resilin must last for the lifetime of adult insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s and must therefore operate for hundreds of millions of extension

Extension (kinesiology)

In kinesiology, extension is a movement of a joint that results in increased angle between two bones or body surfaces at a joint. Extension usually results in straightening of the bones or body surfaces involved. For example, extension is produced by extending the flexed elbow. Straightening of...

 and contraction

Contraction

Contraction may refer to:In physiology:* Muscle contraction, one that occurs when a muscle fiber lengthens or shortens** Uterine contraction, contraction of the uterus, such as during childbirth* Contraction, a stage in wound healing...

; its elastic efficiency ensures performance over the insect's lifetime. Resilin exhibits unusual elastomeric behaviour only when swollen in polar solvents such as water.

A multi-disciplinary research team funded by the Australian research body CSIRO published research in Nature

Nature (journal)

Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...

on 13 October 2005 on the artificial creation of the protein.

A recombinant

Recombinant DNA

Recombinant DNA molecules are DNA sequences that result from the use of laboratory methods to bring together genetic material from multiple sources, creating sequences that would not otherwise be found in biological organisms...

 form of the vinegar fly

Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila melanogaster is a species of Diptera, or the order of flies, in the family Drosophilidae. The species is known generally as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Starting from Charles W...

 resilin protein, pro-resilin, was synthesized in 2005 by expressing a part of the fly gene

Gene

A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

 in the bacterium Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms . Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some serotypes can cause serious food poisoning in humans, and are occasionally responsible for product recalls...

. It is expected to have many applications in the athletic footwear, medical, microelectronics

Microelectronics

Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture of very small electronic components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre-scale or smaller,. These devices are made from semiconductors...

and other industries.