CqChitinase2 is an endochitinase that cleaves chitin
strands internally, releasing multimers of low molecular mass.
Two bands (n1 and n3) contained the enzyme beta-Nacetylglucosaminidase.
Previous studies attribute two different potential
activities for beta-N-acetylglucosaminidases in chitin structure assembly;
1) generating N-acetylglucosamine monomers from low
molecularmassmultimers as exochitinases, aswas suggested for fungal
chitin assembly [44], or 2) modification of cuticular glycoproteins and
onset of mineralization, as was suggested from experimental work on
the cuticles of the blue crab Callinectes sapidus [6,45–47]. Another potentially
chitin-binding protein identified was designated as GAMPlike