Cuticle, Arthropod

Filming and surface settlement of marine larvae has been studied by Crisp and Ryland (77) and Crisp and Meadows (78), and they have found that a water soluble component of arthropod cuticle, arthropod n, greatly facilitates adhesion to solids. 

Vincent, J.F., Wegst, U.G., 2004. Design and mechanical properties of insect cuticle. Arthropod Stmct. Dev. 33 (3), 187-199. 

Neville AC (1975) Biology of the Arthropod Cuticle. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York... 

The solid cuticle of the arthropod is a complex extracellular product made of chitin (a polysaccharide) and tanned or fibrous proteins, and is often hard and... 

The composition of lipids from the silk and cuticule has been reviewed by Schulz (1997a, 1999). These lipids consist primarily of alkanes, as found in other arthropods, with 2-methylalkanes with an even number of carbon atoms in the chain being most abundant, with lesser amounts of alcohols, acids, aldehydes, and wax esters. Recently, a thorough analysis of the silk lipids of N. clavipes (Schulz, 2001) revealed a unique class of lipids from spider silk and cuticle, consisting of straight-chain and branched methyl ethers (1-methoxyalkanes, Fig. 4.4) with chain lengths between 25 and 45 carbon atoms. 

The presence of catechols and more complex, oxidizable polyphenols in nature is widespread, and their functions are not limited to chemical defense. However, biological control of their oxidation is usually a feature of their function, as it is (1) in melanin synthesis,3 (2) in immunologically mediated delayed-type hypersensitivity responses,4 (3) in the hardening or curing of arthropod secretions (for example, as in the surface attachment adhesives of the barnacle and in tanning of the cuticle in insects),5 as well as (4) in defensive mechanisms in higher plants, particularly in the unleashing of immediate necrotrophic responses.6... 

Fig. 4. Simplified version of Digby s semiconductor theory of biomineralization. In the arthropod (top) ions are continually diffusing out of the animal across the cuticle at different rates setting up a potential with the outer surface positive. This causes a flow of electrons leaving the inner surface rich in proteins and the outer surface with hydroxyl ions. The alkaline outer surface favors CaC03 formation. In molluscs (bottom) muscular movements cause salt flow through the periostracum followed by an alkaline reaction on the inside inducing CaC03 deposition. (After Simkiss445 )...

Larman, V. N., Protein extracts from some marine animals which promote barnacle settlement possible relationship between a protein component of arthropod cuticle and actin, Comp. Biochem. Physiol. B., 77, 73, 1984. 

Hackman, R. H., and Goldberg, M. (1987). Comparative study of some expanding arthropod cuticles the relation between composition, structure and function. Journal of Insect Physiology, 33, 39-50. 

Gelman, N. and Machin, J. (1994). Diffusion through the water barrier of arthropod cuticles A statistical mechanical approach to the analysis of temperature effects. 

Gelman, N., Machin, J. and Kestler, P. (1988). The nature of driving forces for passive water transport through arthropod cuticle../. Thermal Biol., 13,157-162. 

Toolson, E.C. (1978). Diffusion of water through the arthropod cuticle - thermodynamic consideration of the transition phenomenon. J. Thermal Biol., 3, 69-73. 

Stankiewicz, B.A., Scott, A.C., Collinson, M.E., Finch, P Mosle, B Briggs, D.E.G. and Evershed, R.P. (1998). Molecular taphonomy of arthropod and plant cuticles from the Carboniferous of North America implications for the origin of kerogen. 

Brief, general reviews of chitin chemistry exist,as do accounts of fungal chitin. The occurrence and function of chitin in arthropod cuticles are dealt with at length by Richards. The purpose of the present Chapter is to present a more comprehensive account of the chemistry and biochemistry of chitin. 

Cancer pagurus cuticle can be dispersed in hot, aqueous solutions of lithium thiocyanate and be reprecipitated without separating the chitin and protein components. The stability of the complex under these conditions would suggest the presence of primary bonding. Thus, some ehitin-protein bonding does exist in arthropod cuticle, but its exact nature and its physiological significance or its involvement in chitin biosynthesis (or both) remain uncertain. 

In summary, the arthropod cuticle is not chitinous and can probably best be described as a plasticized, protein sheet, variously subdivided to give a laminar structure by (a) the addition of waxes at the outer surfaces and chitin in the inner parts, and (b) hardening due to impregnation with calcium salts or further polymerization with polyphenols, or both. 

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