That's essentially correct. The silk resulting from the FIRST round of ZF GMs should already have been sent to testing by now and KBLB would be awaiting results. However we are not sure if the first round was intended to accomplish pure spider silk.
!!!!!!!NOTE: EVERYTHING IN THIS POST IS SPECULATON AND NONE OF IT IS PREDICITION!!!!!!!!!
As I noted in many posts before the genetic modifications to accomplish pure spider might have been either a one step one generation process OR a two step two generation process (in which case the results from the current testing would be some sort of intermediate result.)
IF, for example, KBLB wanted to add a spider silk protein to the same position as the worm silk protein in the first round and then wait for the second round, the result of the first round would probably be a silk superior to Monster Silk and closer to pure spider silk because of having a higher proportion of spider silk protein to worm silk protein, say something like 75% SSP (Monster silk is probably abou 67%) and 85 to 90% of the strength of spider silk. NOT A PREDICTION! JUST GIVEN AS AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN. There are other possibilities and we DO NOT KNOW which genetic modifications KBLB did not what the order in which it did them was nor to what type of worms nor what the goals of the modifications were. (although one of them was highly likely to have been pure spider silk IMHO)
Then the second round would probably be to remove the worm silk protein gene, probably resulting in pure spider silk.
OR the first round could have been to a Monster Silk worm to remove the worm silk protein gene resulting in, hopefully, pure spider silk from the first round.
NOTE: to make the most money from it's spider silk products KBLB would want a RANGE of products (something somewhat like 80%, 85%, 95%, and pure spider silk) each at different prices so each user of its products would get the quality it needed for its application without having to pay a higher price for a quality higher than it needed. (Most consumer products do that: computers are an excellent example)
So a result intermediate between the Monster Silk and pure spider silk would not be a "wasted" step by any means!
(In fact, given that Monster Silk is TWICE as strong as silkworm silk (and probably good enough for many high tech high value goods justifying a lot higher price than silkworm silk) I would not be at all surprised it KBLB at some point developed a worm with LESS SSP for a 60% of spider silk streght to sell to the silk garments and accessories industry and reserves the Monster Silk for higher tech markets that might pay a considerably higher price (but less than for pure spider). And THAT, IMHO, might well be the reason we haven't had a deal yet with the silk garments and accessories industry. Why establish a much lower price for a product by selling it in a low price market when you could get a lot higher price in a higher market and meet the lower price markets needs with a lower range product?
Do you want to make a little money now or a lot more money later?
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