One of the strongest fibers in nature is the spiders' silk. The silk is composed of a variety of proteins, secreted by the spiders using special silk glands. The silk threads are spooled out of the external parts of the glands, known as spinnerets. Spiders often have numerous pairs of spinnerets, which they use to produce different types of silk.
Scientists have uncovered the genetic sequence for one of the strongest silks that spiders produce, a discovery that could one day be used to make super spider-silk products for humans:).

Spider Web (Courtesy: EarthLife)Not all spider silk are created equal. For example, spiders use dragline silk to create the scaffolding for their webs, but another type of silk, known as capture silk, is used to fill out the web. While dragline silk is strong, capture silk is more elastic and also sticky, making it better suited for trapping insects that stray too close.
Using molecular biology lab techniques, Cheryl Hayashi (UC Riverside) and Jessica Garb (UC Berkeley) uncovered the sequence of molecules called amino acids (constituents of proteins) for a major protein component in egg case silk (used by certain spiders to encase their eggs) known as Tusp1. Their finding is important because mechanical properties like the strength, elasticity and durability of a silk is determined by its amino acid sequence, and scientists have been successful in discovering only a handful of such sequences.
Applications of synthetic spider-silk range from better body armor to better sutures for surgery:):).