The chitin crystallite in arthropod cuticle

Abstract

Electron microscopy has revealed that chitin from a representative selection of insect orders (plus one crustacean and one arachnid) is localized in crystallites about 2.8 nm across. Furthermore, these crystallites are arranged on an hexagonal or pseudo-hexagonal lattice, the lateral order of which varies considerably. The lattice becomes secondarily reoriented during cuticle expansion following an ecdysis. The size of the ‘unit cell’ has been measured both by optical diffraction and direct measurements of the micrographs, permitting an estimate of the chitin and resilin content for locust rubberlike cuticle. The number of poly-N-acetyl-glucosamine chains per sheet and sheets per crystallite can be estimated from the physical dimensions of the crystallite. Each crystallite is unlikely to comprise more than 3 sheets and 6 chains per sheet. The calculated and measured density of alpha-chitin can be shown to be in close agreement.