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Molecular Model of Skeletal Organization and Differentiation

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Extracellular Composite Matrices in Arthropods

Abstract

The insect cuticle is an extracellular composite matrix deposited and organized by underlying epithelial cells. It protects the animal against dehydration, serves as a barrier against xenobiotics, pathogens and predators, and, as an exoskeleton, allows locomotion. To accommodate its various functions, the different components of the cuticle – the polysaccharide chitin, proteins, lipids and catecholamines – interact with each other forming a tri-dimensional structure. Despite its emergence in the Cambrium, this structure has retained its basic organization in all insect orders tested. Three horizontal layers are distinguished: the outer envelope, the middle epicuticle and the inner procuticle. The histology of the cuticle and the processes of its formation were analysed in detail especially in the kissing bug Rhodnius prolixus and the larger canna leafroller Calpodes ethlius particularly by electron microscopy. Most of the essential molecular players involved in cuticle formation were identified and characterized in the last decade using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum as model insects employing genetic tools. This chapter aims at merging our histological and molecular knowledge by summarizing the central works on these four exemplar insect species.

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  1. Genetik der Tiere, Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Bernard Moussian

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  1. Department of Entomology, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel

    Ephraim Cohen

  2. Genetik der Tiere, Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Bernard Moussian

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Moussian, B. (2016). Molecular Model of Skeletal Organization and Differentiation. In: Cohen, E., Moussian, B. (eds) Extracellular Composite Matrices in Arthropods. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40740-1_3

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