Studies on resilin-like gene products in insects

Putative pro-resilins from 12 Drosophila species are compared with each other and with some pro-resilin-related proteins from other insect species, in an attempt to decide which structural features are likely to be important for the characteristic properties of resilins. The putative pro-resilins from the 12 Drosophila species are very similar; their structures are characterized by a chitin-binding R&R Consensus sequence of type RR-2, surrounded by two repeat-containing regions. The repeat-containing regions are assumed to be responsible for the long-range elasticity characteristic for resilin. Pronounced differences are present between the Drosophila pro-resilins and the resilin-like gene products present in other insect species. It is suggested that gene products, which are predicted both to be cuticular proteins and to possess long-range elasticity, should be classified as either putative pro-resilins or pro-resilin-like proteins. Gene products which are predicted to possess long-range elasticity, but do not contain a chitin-binding region, should not be classified as pro-resilin-like proteins until it has been established that they are cuticular proteins.