Chitin may be employed for affinity purification of recombinant protein.
A chitin binding moiety is genetically fused to a protein of interest and
then connected to beads coated with chitin. The immobilized protein is purified
and released from the beads by cleaving off the chitin binding moiety.
The chitin filaments are just a few millionths of a metre thick, and tightly packed, scattering light efficiently, deflecting all colours with equal strength, but still able keep a degree of disorder in their shape.In addition, some social wasps species, such as Protopolybia chartergoides, orally secrete material containing predominantly chitin to build envelopes for their nests