Skip to main content
PMC home page
The Journal of Cell Biology logoLink to The Journal of Cell Biology
. 1981 Jul 1;90(1):7–17. doi: 10.1083/jcb.90.1.7

Cuticle of Caenorhabditis elegans: its isolation and partial characterization

PMCID: PMC2111847  PMID: 7251677

Abstract

The adult cuticle of the soil nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, is a proteinaceous extracellular structure elaborated by the underlying layer of hypodermal cells during the final molt in the animal's life cycle. The cuticle is composed of an outer cortical layer connected by regularly arranged struts to an inner basal layer. The cuticle can be isolated largely intact and free of all cellular material by sonication and treatment with 1% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Purified cuticles exhibit a negative material in the basal cuticle layer. The cuticle layers differ in their solubility in sulfhydryl reducing agents, susceptibility to various proteolytic enzymes and amino acid composition. The struts, basal layer, and internal cortical layer are composed of collagen proteins that are extensively cross-linked by disulfide bonds. The external cortical layer appears to contain primarily noncollagen proteins that are extensively cross-linked by nonreducible covalent bonds. The collagen proteins extracted from the cuticle with a reducing agent can be separated by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis into eight major species differing in apparent molecular weight.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (1.8 MB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. BIRD A. F., DEUTSCH K. The structure of the cuticle of Ascaris lumbricoides var. suis. Parasitology. 1957 Dec;47(3-4):319–328. doi: 10.1017/s0031182000022009. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Brenner S. The genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics. 1974 May;77(1):71–94. doi: 10.1093/genetics/77.1.71. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cassada R. C., Russell R. L. The dauerlarva, a post-embryonic developmental variant of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Dev Biol. 1975 Oct;46(2):326–342. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(75)90109-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cox G. N., Laufer J. S., Kusch M., Edgar R. S. Genetic and Phenotypic Characterization of Roller Mutants of CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS. Genetics. 1980 Jun;95(2):317–339. doi: 10.1093/genetics/95.2.317. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Evans H. J., Sullivan C. E., Piez K. A. The resolution of Ascaris cuticle collagen into three chain types. Biochemistry. 1976 Apr 6;15(7):1435–1439. doi: 10.1021/bi00652a013. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Eyre D. R. Collagen: molecular diversity in the body's protein scaffold. Science. 1980 Mar 21;207(4437):1315–1322. doi: 10.1126/science.7355290. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Fessler J. H., Fessler L. I. Biosynthesis of procollagen. Annu Rev Biochem. 1978;47:129–162. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.47.070178.001021. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Fujimoto D., Kanaya S. Cuticlin: a noncollagen structural protein from Ascaris cuticle. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1973 Jul;157(1):1–6. doi: 10.1016/0003-9861(73)90382-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Furthmayr H., Timpl R. Characterization of collagen peptides by sodium dodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide electrophoresis. Anal Biochem. 1971 Jun;41(2):510–516. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(71)90173-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Gatt R., Berman E. R. A rapid procedure for the estimation of amino sugars on a micro scale. Anal Biochem. 1966 Apr;15(1):167–171. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(66)90262-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Goldstein A., Adams E. Glycylhydroxyprolyl sequences in earthworm cuticle collagen: glycylhydroxyprolylserine. J Biol Chem. 1970 Oct 25;245(20):5478–5483. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. HIRS C. H. The oxidation of ribonuclease with performic acid. J Biol Chem. 1956 Apr;219(2):611–621. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Higgins B. J., Hirsh D. Roller mutants of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Mol Gen Genet. 1977 Jan 7;150(1):63–72. doi: 10.1007/BF02425326. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Hodgkin J., Horvitz H. R., Brenner S. Nondisjunction Mutants of the Nematode CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS. Genetics. 1979 Jan;91(1):67–94. doi: 10.1093/genetics/91.1.67. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Kimura S., Tanzer M. L. Nereis cuticle collagen. Isolation and properties of a large fragment resistant to proteolysis by bacterial collagenase. J Biol Chem. 1977 Nov 25;252(22):8018–8022. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. LOWRY O. H., ROSEBROUGH N. J., FARR A. L., RANDALL R. J. Protein measurement with the Folin phenol reagent. J Biol Chem. 1951 Nov;193(1):265–275. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Laemmli U. K., Favre M. Maturation of the head of bacteriophage T4. I. DNA packaging events. J Mol Biol. 1973 Nov 15;80(4):575–599. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(73)90198-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Leushner J. R., Semple N. L., Pasternak J. Isolation and characterization of the cuticle from the free-living nematode Panagrellus silusiae. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1979 Sep 29;580(1):166–174. doi: 10.1016/0005-2795(79)90207-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Mackenzie J. M., Jr, Garcea R. L., Zengel J. M., Epstein H. F. Muscle development in Caenorhabditis elegans: mutants exhibiting retarded sarcomere construction. Cell. 1978 Nov;15(3):751–762. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(78)90261-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. McBride O. W., Harrington W. F. Ascaris cuticle collagen: on the disulfide cross-linkages and the molecular properties of the subunits. Biochemistry. 1967 May;6(5):1484–1498. doi: 10.1021/bi00857a035. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. McCormick P. J., Chandrasekhar S., Millis A. J. Direct visualization of collagens and procollagens in polyacrylamide gels. Anal Biochem. 1979 Sep 1;97(2):359–366. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(79)90086-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Micko S., Schlaepfer W. W. Metachromasy of peripheral nerve collagen on polyacrylamide gels stained with Coomassie brilliant blue R-250. Anal Biochem. 1978 Aug 1;88(2):566–572. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(78)90457-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Noble S., Leushner J., Pasternak J. In vitro translation of nematode cuticular collagens. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1978 Aug 23;520(1):219–228. doi: 10.1016/0005-2787(78)90022-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Regier J. C., Mazur G. D., Kafatos F. C. The silkmoth chorion: morphological and biochemical characterization of four surface regions. Dev Biol. 1980 May;76(2):286–304. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(80)90380-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Schachat F., Garcea R. L., Epstein H. F. Myosins exist as homodimers of heavy chains: demonstration with specific antibody purified by nematode mutant myosin affinity chromatography. Cell. 1978 Oct;15(2):405–411. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(78)90009-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Ward S., Miwa J. Characterization of temperature-sensitive, fertilization-defective mutants of the nematode caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics. 1978 Feb;88(2):285–303. doi: 10.1093/genetics/88.2.285. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Weber K., Pringle J. R., Osborn M. Measurement of molecular weights by electrophoresis on SDS-acrylamide gel. Methods Enzymol. 1972;26:3–27. doi: 10.1016/s0076-6879(72)26003-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Cell Biology are provided here courtesy of The Rockefeller University Press

RESOURCES