There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
The melanization reaction, which is a common response to parasite entry in invertebrate
animals, especially arthropods, is due to the activity of an oxidoreductase, phenoloxidase.
This enzyme is part of a complex system of proteinases, pattern recognition proteins
and proteinase inhibitors constituting the so-called prophenoloxidase-activating system.
It is proposed to be a non-self recognition system because conversion of prophenoloxidase
to active enzyme can be brought about by minuscule amounts of molecules such as lipopolysaccharide,
peptidoglycan and beta-1, 3-glucans from micro-organisms. Several components of this
system recently have been isolated and their structure determined.