Genetic engineering for novel fibres

Genetic engineering methods are being investigated for their potential to p roduce new kinds of textile fibres, The systems fall into two main groups. There are those systems that can produce monomeric protein molecules in sol ution from appropriately engineered gents and include expression in bacteri a, cell cultures or in the milk of transgenic animals such as goats or shee p. The protein monomers are then isolated from the chosen system and spun a nd drawn into fibres, The other approach is to modify keratin fibres such a s wool by expressing other proteins in the internal components by transgene sis. These systems are briefly reviewed with a discussion of the properties being sought and the progress to date including some changes to cellulose fibres.