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Chitin Metabolic Pathways in Insects and Their Regulation

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Extracellular Composite Matrices in Arthropods

Abstract

Chitin, the matrix polymer of arthropod exoskeleton, occurs in three forms that have different structural and mechanical properties. In the insect cuticle and the peritrophic matrix, individual chitin chains are further organized into higher order structures that give chitinous matrices their unique and widely differing properties such as rigidity, elasticity and waterproofing. In this chapter, we review the biochemical pathways of chitin biosynthesis, degradation and modification. In many cases, there are multiple isozymes for carrying out each step of chitin metabolism with specialization among members of families of isozymes. The gene families encoding the enzymes of chitin metabolism and their regulation are presented. The roles of chitin metabolism isoenzymes within families as revealed by gene deletion studies or RNA interference are discussed. How the association of chitin with different assortments of proteins modifies the properties of chitin matrices is briefly outlined.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, Kansas State University, 141 Chalmers Hall, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Subbaratnam Muthukrishnan

  2. Department of Chemistry and Biology – Institute of Biology, University of Siegen, Adolf-Reichwein-Str. 2, 57076, Siegen, Germany

    Hans Merzendorfer

  3. Department of Applied Biology, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, 61186, South Korea

    Yasuyuki Arakane

  4. School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Dalian University of Technology, No. 2 Linggong Road, Dalian, 116024, China

    Qing Yang

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  1. Subbaratnam Muthukrishnan
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  2. Hans Merzendorfer
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  3. Yasuyuki Arakane
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  4. Qing Yang
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Correspondence to Subbaratnam Muthukrishnan .

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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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Muthukrishnan, S., Merzendorfer, H., Arakane, Y., Yang, Q. (2016). Chitin Metabolic Pathways in Insects and Their Regulation. In: Cohen, E., Moussian, B. (eds) Extracellular Composite Matrices in Arthropods. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40740-1_2

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