Lipids cuticle

Muller et al. (1994) adapted and extended the two-compartment approach. They defined four plant compartments in addition to water cellular lipids, cuticle, structural carbohydrates, and proteins. Their predictive equation is ... 

Functional Nail-Care Products. Cuticle removers are solutions of dilute alkaHes that faciHtate removal, or at least softeniag, of the cuticle. Formulations containing as much as 5% potassium hydroxide have been reported. Such preparations may contain about 10% glycerine to reduce dryiag, and thickeners, such as clays, to reduce mnoff Lipids and other conditioners are iacluded to reduce damage to tissues other than the cuticle. 

Hurst (19) discusses the similarity in action of the pyrethrins and of DDT as indicated by a dispersant action on the lipids of insect cuticle and internal tissue. He has developed an elaborate theory of contact insecticidal action but provides no experimental data. Hurst believes that the susceptibility to insecticides depends partially on the cuticular permeability, but more fundamentally on the effects on internal tissue receptors which control oxidative metabolism or oxidative enzyme systems. The access of pyrethrins to insects, for example, is facilitated by adsorption and storage in the lipophilic layers of the epicuticle. The epicuticle is to be regarded as a lipoprotein mosaic consisting of alternating patches of lipid and protein receptors which are sites of oxidase activity. Such a condition exists in both the hydrophilic type of cuticle found in larvae of Calliphora and Phormia and in the waxy cuticle of Tenebrio larvae. Hurst explains pyrethrinization as a preliminary narcosis or knockdown phase in which oxidase action is blocked by adsorption of the insecticide on the lipoprotein tissue components, followed by death when further dispersant action of the insecticide results in an irreversible increase in the phenoloxidase activity as a result of the displacement of protective lipids. This increase in phenoloxidase activity is accompanied by the accumulation of toxic quinoid metabolites in the blood and tissues—for example, O-quinones which would block substrate access to normal enzyme systems. The varying degrees of susceptibility shown by different insect species to an insecticide may be explainable not only in terms of differences in cuticle make-up but also as internal factors associated with the stability of oxidase systems. 

Plants were probably the first to have polyester outerwear, as the aerial parts of higher plants are covered with a cuticle whose structural component is a polyester called cutin. Even plants that live under water in the oceans, such as Zoestra marina, are covered with cutin. This lipid-derived polyester covering is unique to plants, as animals use carbohydrate or protein polymers as their outer covering. Cutin, the insoluble cuticular polymer of plants, is composed of inter-esterified hydroxy and hydroxy epoxy fatty acids derived from the common cellular fatty acids and is attached to the outer epidermal layer of cells by a pectinaceous layer (Fig. 1). The insoluble polymer is embedded in a complex mixture of soluble lipids collectively called waxes [1], Electron microscopic examination of the cuticle usually shows an amorphous appearance but in some plants the cuticle has a lamellar appearance (Fig. 2). 

Ju Z and WJ Bramlage. 1999. Phenolics and lipid-soluble antioxidants in fruit cuticle of apples and their antioxidant activities in model systems. Postharv Biol Technol 16 107—118. 

The conquest of the land by plants necessitated the development of a coating, the cuticle, that would reduce water loss. Suberin and cutin vary in their proportion of fatty acids, fatty alcohols, hydroxyfatty acids, and dicarboxylic acids. The cuticle is synthesized and excreted by the epidermis of aerial portions of the plant, such as the primary stems, leaves, flower organs, and fruits. The two major hydrophobic layers that contribute to the cuticle are composed of phenolic molecules combined with lipid polymers. Cutin is a polymer found in the outer cell wall of the epidermis, which is... 

This method gives a bright fluorescence of callose but also a side effect due to the presence of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll dispersed in the specimen yields a red fluorescence all around the tissue, especially a red layer on the surface of the organs due to chlorophyll deposition in any lipid substances, such as a cuticle. 

Terrestrial BMOs have also been widely used for monitoring environmental contaminants. In particular, the lipid-like waxy cuticle layer of various types of plant leaves has been used to monitor residues of HOCs in the atmosphere. However, some of the problems associated with aquatic BMOs apply to terrestrial BMOs as well. For example, Bohme et al. (1999) found that the concentrations of HOCs with log KoaS < 9 (i.e., those compounds that should have attained equilibrium) varied by as much as 37-fold in plant species, after normalization of residue concentrations to levels in ryegrass (Lolium spp.). These authors suggested that differences in cuticular wax composition (quality) were responsible for this deviation from equilibrium partition theory. Other characteristics of plant leaves may affect the amount of kinetically-limited and particle-bound HOCs sampled by plant leaves but to a lesser extent (i.e., <4-fold), these include age, surface area, topography of the surface, and leaf orientation. 

Texas blind salamander Typhlomolge rathbuni, a subterranean species, lives in a few caves and wells in the area of San Marcos, Texas. Males and females are attracted by water conditioned by the opposite sex (Bechler, 1986). Males of the salamander Pktftodon cinereus actually signal their diet quality to the females. Males may feed on termites or ants. Termites provide the better diet because they are rich in lipids, energy, and vitamin B components, and lack the hard cuticle of ants. Female salamanders spend more time near fecal pellets from a male on a termite diet than one that feeds on ants. Also, in a forest, more males with termites in their diet were found associated with females than were males on an ant diet (Walls etah, 1989). 

Cutlcular permeability In Insects Is correlated with a number of factors Including growth stage of the Insect, surface to volume ratios, the degree of tanning In the cuticle, conditioning temperatures, and cutlcular lipids 2 ). The cuticle of... 

Cuticle. The cuticle of adult nematodes is relatively impermeable and is composed primarily of a complex of several proteins. These proteins include collagens, fibroids, elastoids, and keratoids, possibly hardened by tanning with pol3rphenols or quinones. Sometimes lipide materials are also present (8, 10y 52). When such lipide materials are present on the adult cuticle, they probably take the form of hydroxy fatty acids or esters of fatty acids with monohydroxy alcohols. Such materials may form ring compounds. Regardless of the exact chemical nature, the lipides are unquestionably one of the chief barriers to permeability. These materials are commonly difficult to demon-... 

As can be seen from the examples discussed so far, pheromones present on spider cuticle or silk frequently play an important role in spider communication, but limited information is available about their composition. Lipids, whose primary function is regulation of water content, also may have important roles in communication. 

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. 

A particularly thorny problem that remains to be resolved is the species-recognition process that is mediated by physical or tactile cues associated with silk or the cuticle, as well as pheromones on these two substrates. To date, the lipid mixtures associated with silk or cuticle seem to display the most variable structures and blends, making them good candidates for species recognition. In contrast, the more polar components appear to be less species specific and so are less likely to be the key factors in intraspecific recognition. 

The third, and perhaps least understood, mechanism regulating contact pheromone production involves its transport to the cuticular surface. The detection of large amounts of hydrocarbons and pheromone internally, within the hemolymph, prompted an examination of lipid transport in B. germanica. Gu et al. (1995) and Sevala etal. (1997) isolated and purified a high density lipoprotein, lipophorin, that carries hydrocarbons, contact pheromone, and JH within the hemolymph. The accumulated evidence supports the idea that the hydrocarbons and contact pheromone components are produced by oenocytes within the abdominal integument, carried by lipophorin, and differentially deposited in the cuticle and ovaries (Fan et al.,... 

Surface lipids of plants. The thick cuticle (Fig. 1-6) that covers the outer surfaces of green plants consists largely of waxes and other lipids but also contains a complex polymeric matrix of cutin (stems and leaves) or suberin (roots and wound surfaces).135/135a Plant waxes commonly have C10 - C30 chains in both acid and alcohol components. Methyl branches are frequently present. A major function of the waxes is to inhibit evaporation of water and to protect the outer cell layer. In addition, the methyl branched components may inhibit enzymatic breakdown by microbes. Free fatty acids, free alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, 13-dike tones, and alkanes are also present in plant surface waxes. Chain lengths are usually C20 - C35.136 Hydrocarbon formation can occur in other parts of a plant as well as in the cuticle. Thus, normal heptane constitutes up to 98% of the volatile portion of the turpentine of Pin us jeffreyi.81... 

Riederer (1990) published a more complex method based on two lipid-like compartments, an acylglycerol lipid compartment and a cuticle compartment. The acylglycerol-air partition coefficient was assumed to equal Kow/Kaw, while measured values of the cuticle-water partition coefficient were employed for the cuticle compartment. Riederer (1995) later modified this model to include a predictive equation for the cuticle-water partition coefficient, based on Kerler and Schonherr s measurements (1988) of eight chemicals with log KqW values ranging from 1.92 to 7.86. They used isolated citrus and rubber plant leaf cuticles as well as tomato and green pepper fruit cuticles. The resulting equation is... 

The two major polymeric lipid components found in plant cuticles are cutin and cutan. Whereas cutin is the polyester biopolymer that is solubilized upon saponification treatment, cutan is a nonsaponifiable and nonextractable polymeric substance... 

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

The eggs of B. germanica contain the same types of hydrocarbons as the hemolymph, HDLp, and cuticle of the adult female. Only 150 pg of hydrocarbons accumulate on the epicuticular surface whereas up to 450 pg accumulate within the female during the period of egg maturation (Fan et al., 2002). The internal hydrocarbons are divided primarily between the ovaries, fat body, and 150 pg of HDLp-bound hydrocarbons in the hemolymph. During oocyte maturation ovarian hydrocarbons increase by more than 65-fold - from 3.5 pg on day-1 to 232 pg on day-8 (Fan et al., 2002). However, after oviposition on day-9, ovarian hydrocarbons decline to only 8.2 pg, demonstrating that hydrocarbons were associated with the ovulated oocytes. Radiotracing results indicate that they serve as components of the cuticular lipids of the embryos and first instars (Fan and Schal, unpublished results). 

The inducibility of Prl by proteinaceous compounds released enzymatically from insect cuticle was also studied inM anisopliae (Paterson et al., 1994b). In the case of Schistocerca gregaria cuticle treated with KOH in order to remove proteins, no induction of Prl production was observed, while cuticle treated with chloroform or ether to remove lipids was able to induce enzyme production. Digestion of cuticle with Prl or the trypsin-like protease Pr2 ofM anisopliae resulted in peptides mainly in the range of 150-2000 Da. The addition of these peptides at 3 pg Ala equivalents ml"1 led to the induction of Prl production to a level (75%) similar to that observed in the case of untreated insect cuticle. The ability of various amino acids and peptides abundant in insect cuticular protein (Ala, Gly, Ala-Ala, Ala-Ala-Ala, Ala-Pro and Pro-Ala) to induce Prl was tested but none of them was found to increase enzyme production in the levels observed with cuticle, or peptides enzymatically released from the cuticle. 

Both the cuticle and cortical cells are bounded by cell membranes that, together with the intercellular material, are known as the cell membrane complex (Marshall, Orwin, and Gillespie 1991). This consists of the (Mayers, protein-lipid complexes (-5 nm thick) on either side of the 6-layer, and an intercellular cement (-15 nm thick) (Baden 1990) rich in amino and carboxyl... 

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