Abstract
Some modern elementary biology texts inform their readers that arthropod cuticles are composed exclusively of the polysaccharide, chitin. But it has been known since 1823 that there is another major nitrogenous component which we now know to be protein. The first to measure the amount of protein in the cuticle was Gottfried Fraenkel. His publication with Rudall in 1940 alerted the scientific community to the fact that about 40% of the dry weight of fly larval cuticle is protein, much of which is soluble in boiling water. They also discovered that less than 10% of the dry weight remained soluble in boiling water after the puparium was tanned, but that protein could still be extracted with 5% KOH, leaving the chitin behind.
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© 1981 Plenum Press, New York
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Willis, J.H., Regier, J.C., Debrunner, B.A. (1981). The Metamorphosis of Arthropodin. In: Bhaskaran, G., Friedman, S., Rodriguez, J.G. (eds) Current Topics in Insect Endocrinology and Nutrition. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3210-7_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3210-7_4
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