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ABSTRACT
Chitin, poly (β-(1→4)-N-acetyl-d-glucosamine), is an important biopolymer for insects that is utilized as a major component of peritrophic membrane. The chitin content in peritrophic membrane is of expedient interest from a pest control perspective, although it is hard to quantify chitin. In this study, we establish a facile method for the quantification of chitin in peritrophic membrane by image processing. In this method, chitin was indirectly quantified using chitosan–I3− complex, which exhibited a specific red-purple color. A calibration curve using a chitosan solution showed good linearity in a concentration range of 0.05–0.5 μg/μL. We quantified the amount of chitin in peritrophic membrane of Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) larvae using this method. Throughout the study, only common inexpensive regents and easily attainable apparatuses were employed. This method can be easily applied to the sensitive quantification of the amounts of chitin and chitosan in materials by wide range of researchers.
Abbreviations: LOD: limit of detection; LOQ: limit of quantification; ROI: region of interest; RSD: relative standard deviation.
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Chitin in peritrophic membrane of insects was quantified by image processing with an
easy, inexpensive and sensitive method.
Acknowledgments
We thank Dr James Sims of ETH Zurich for English proofreading.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Authors’ contribution
Ryu Nakata and Naoki Mori designed the research. R. N. performed the experiments and analyzed data with the aid of Naoko Yoshinaga, Masayoshi Teraishi, and Yutaka Okumoto. M. T. and Y. O. provided plant materials. R. N. wrote the manuscript.
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.