Chemical and immunological properties of lipophorins from seven insect orders

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Abstract
The major insect hemolymph lipoprotein, lipophorin, was isolated from adults of eight insect species representing seven insect orders. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was used to compare their respective apoprotein components. In all species examined lipophorin was composed of at least two apoproteins, apolipophorin I (Mr ∼ 250,000) and apolipophorin II (Mr ∼ 78,000), and two species had a third apoprotein, apolipophorin III (Mr ∼ 17,000). The density of each isolated lipophorin was determined from the refractive index of KBr following density gradient centrifugation. Immunoblotting with anti‐larval Manduca sexta apolipophorin I and II of the apoproteins separated by SDS‐PACE indicated cross reactivity between anti‐M sexta apoLp‐ll and apoLp‐ll in all species tested. Anti‐M sexta apoLp‐l exhibited no cross reactivity for any species tested. Fluorescent lectin staining of the apoproteins separated on SDS‐PAGE gels revealed the presence of covalently bound carbohydrate residues.