Cuticular protein analysis from Astacus leptodactylus—II. Immunological identities of proteins from shell and hemolymph

Abstract 1. 1. Immunochemical tests showed that crayfish cuticle is partly built up with proteins from blood origin. 2. 2. Other proteins, such as crustacyanin, originated from the only hypodermis. 3. 3. Both moult related and clottable blood proteins were not seen in soluble extracts. 4. 4. Some proteins from different cuticular extracts exhibited total immunological identities between themselves when tested against an antiplasma. 5. 5. Immunological cross reactions between cuticular proteins and hemolymph seemed to be related to the stabilization state and the molting stage of the cuticle.