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scaffold for strength, muscle attachments
• pleural (suture) (example)• critical for flight
Two major sections:
1. epicuticle2. procuticle
epidermal cells
• Epicuticle –made up of cuticulin and inner epicuticle
epicuticle
epidermis and associated cells
• epidermal cells• glandular cells• oenocytes
Basic unit of chitin is n-acetylglucosamine
β - linkage
Chitin makes up as much as half of the exoskeleton
forms long chains
chains interact with each otherhydrogen bondsform microfibrils
Across insect cuticle, sclerotization varies
• Exocuticle = hardened region
• Endocuticle= not hardened
Exocuticle
Endocuticle
Degree of sclerotization varies in different body parts, stages,
species … etc
Regions of unsclerotized cuticle give points/lines that can bend
a cuticle protein
• “cleft” full of aromatic residues, which form “flat”surfaces of aromatic rings, for protein–chitin interactions
• outer surface (lower side) important for protein–protein interactions in cuticle.
A protein in hard cuticle
• Histidines (blue) are in right position to participate in sclerotization
• Or to be involved in water binding capacity of cuticle
A protein in soft cuticle
• lacks histidinesfor sclerotization
Young’s modulus
= stiffness
Dermaptera• very important in
wing flexibility and resilience
• blue areas contain resilin
engineers at work
Pore Canals
epidermal cells have extensions that reach up through the epicuticle
Multilayer reflectors
Seago A E et al. J. R. Soc. Interface 2009;6:S165-S184
• the broader the range of thicknesses, the closer to pure silver or gold
The iridescent scales of the Morpho sulkowskyi butterfly give a different optical response to different individual vapours. This optical response dramatically outperforms that of existing nano-engineered photonic sensors.