sclerotin Biol.
(ˈsklɪərətɪn)
[f. sclero- + -tin after chitin, keratin, etc.]
Any of a class of structural proteins which form the exocuticles of insects and harden and darken by a natural tanning process in which protein chains become cross-linked by quinone groups.
| 1940 M. G. M. Pryor in Proc. R. Soc. B. CXXVIII. 391, I therefore propose the name ‘sclerotin’ as a general term to describe proteins such as that of the cockroach ootheca, which owe their stability to a process of natural tanning. 1957 Richards & Davies Imms's Textbk. Ent. (ed. 9) i. 11 Polyphenols..are the precursors of the quinones which link the arthropodin molecules to form sclerotin. 1969 R. F. Chapman Insects xxii. 434 Part of the protein may later be tanned.., stabilised by cross-linkages between the molecules, to form a hard, inflexible and usually darkened structure. Such tanned arthropodin is called sclerotin, and this produces the hardness of the sclerites. 1976 Sci. Amer. Apr. 134/3 Such quinone-linked proteins, called sclerotins, are usually coloured brown or black, accounting for the hard beetle look we all know. |