Insect Haemolymph Proteins

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the structure and function of major groups of hemolymph proteins that are common to all insects, storage proteins, lipoproteins, vitellogenins, and inducible antibacterial proteins. It also discusses some proteins and peptides that are present in smaller amounts, sometimes occurring only in a few insect species. With the development of microsequencing techniques that can provide information about the sequence of amino acids at the N-terminal end of an intact protein on a sample of less than 20 picomoles, it has become feasible to use one- or two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) a the protein purification method of choice. In many cases, proteins can be transferred directly from gels to derivatized paper or other media and spots cut from the medium can be inserted directly into the sequencer. If necessary, proteins on the medium can be cleaved to peptides, which can be separated by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) or by PAGE.