Tn. Krogh et al., PRIMARY STRUCTURE OF PROTEINS FROM THE WING CUTICLE OF THE MIGRATORY LOCUST, LOCUSTA-MIGRATORIA, Insect biochemistry and molecular biology, 25(3), 1995, pp. 319-329
Wing cuticle from pharate adult locusts, Locusta migratoria, contains
several prominent proteins which occur as minor components or are comp
letely absent in other cuticular regions. Six of the wing-specific pro
teins have been purified and their amino acid sequences determined by
combined use of mass spectrometry and automated Edman degradation. Dur
ing the sequence determination very long sequence runs (90-121 residue
s) were necessary in order to establish the primary structure, All the
wing-specific cuticular proteins from locusts contain the repeated sh
ort sequence motif -Ala-Ala-Pro-Ala/Val-, which is common for all hith
erto sequenced cuticular proteins from pharate locusts. Several of the
wing-specific proteins also possess an N-terminal region rich in glyc
ine, tyrosine and leucine, characteristic for many locust cuticular pr
oteins. Two of the analysed proteins have a conserved 61-residue seque
nce in common with a previously sequenced protein from locust wing cut
icle and with two proteins from the pharate cuticle of adult Tenebrio
molitor. Possible roles for the various sequence motifs are discussed.