Insect cuticle structure and

Herbert Oberlander coordinated the section that features chapters on sac-specific selection using chimeric genes potential applications of neuroendocrine research to insect control insect cuticle structure and metabolism molecular aspects of immune mechanisms in insects molecular genetics of nerve insensitivity resistance to insecticides and inhibition of juvenile hormone esterase by transition-state analogs. 

KRAMER ETAL. Insect Cuticle Structure and Metabolism... 

Electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction experiments conducted on resilin-containing insect cuticle provided further support for resilin existing in the rubbery state as a crosslinked random network of protein chains. No fine structure was revealed by the electron microscopy experiments and zero crystallinity could be detected from the X-ray diffraction experiments. Furthermore, the diffraction... 

Wigglesworth V. B. (1970) Structural lipids in the insect cuticle and the function of the oenocytes. Tissue Cell. 2, 155-179. 

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. 

Kim, H. K., Hoe, H. S., Suh, D. S., Kang, S. C., Hwang, C., and Kwon, S. T. (1999). Gene structure and expression of the gene from Beauveria bassiana encoding bassiasin I, an insect cuticle-degrading serine protease. Biotechnology Letters, 21, 777-783. 

It is important to understand the structure of insect cuticle before we study the cuticu-lar penetration of insecticides. Figure 6.1 shows the structure of insect integument. The integument is the outer layer of the insect, comprising the epidermis and the cuticle. The epicuticle is generally about 1 micron in thickness. It can be composed of as many as four sublayers the cement layer (outermost), the wax layer, the polyphenol layer, and the cuticu-lin layer. The epicuticle, which makes up about 5% of the total thickness of the cuticle, contains lipids, lipoprotein, and protein and, therefore, it is lipophilic. Beneath the epicuticle lies the procuticle, which comprises the exocuticle and the endocuticle. This is essentially a hydrophilic chitin-protein complex containing considerable quantities of water. The endocuticle is soft and is the major constituent of larvae and soft-bodied insects. It is composed of microfibers of chitin and protein, which may impart elasticity to the cuticle. Above this section, the exocuticle is predominant in hard-bodied insects and forms most of the cuticle in adult beetles. It is present only as a thin layer in many larvae and in the hard parts of... 

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