Abstract
MELANINS, although somewhat ill defined, are dark pigments which occur in animals and plants and they are usually bound to protein. Thomson1 in a review has pointed out that there are no satisfactory histochemical tests for the identification of melanin. Alkali solubility and reversible reduction merely indicate acidic and quinonoid properties—properties common to many different types of pigments. Mammalian and cephalopodan melanins in particular have been extensively studied and some have been isolated and examined chemically. Melanins are formed by the action of a phenolase on a phenolic substrate, but their structure is not known. Those derived from tyrosine, however, are considered to be built up from indolyl units. Nicolaus et al.2 classified melanins as “indole” or “catechol” types, depending on the degradation products formed on alkali fusion and permanganate oxidation. All melanins so far examined from animal sources are of the indole type, as are the melanins prepared by the oxidation of tyrosine and dopa.
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Thomson, R. H., in Comparative Biochemistry (edit. by Florkin, M., and Mason, H. S.), 3, chap. 13 (Academic Press, New York, 1962).
Nicolaus, R. A., Piatelli, M., and Fattorusso, E., Tetrahedron, 20, 1163 (1964).
Fattorusso, E., Piattelli, M., and Nicolaus, R. A., Rend. Accad. Sci. Fis. Mat. (Soc. Naz. Sci., Lett. Arti Napoli), 32, 200 (1965).
Hackman, R. H., in The Physiology of Insecta (edit. by Rockstein M.), 3, chap. 8 (Academic Press, New York, 1964).
Hackman, R. H., and Saxena, K. N., Austral. J. Biol. Sci., 17, 803 (1964).
Nicolaus, R. A., Rass. Med. Sper., 7, suppl. 2, 1 (1960).
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HACKMAN, R. Melanin in an Insect, Lucilia cuprina (Wied.). Nature 216, 163 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/216163a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/216163a0
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