Ferritin is crucial for the storage of iron in living organisms ranging from bacteria to insects to humans. Iron in invertebrate animals serves many purposes, such as assisting enzymes in the metabolism, division and detoxification of cells. Unlike in humans, where the majority of ferritin is intracellular, insect heavy and light chain ferritin subunits are secreted and bind iron in the hemolymph (blood). There are also differences in the structure of ferritin in insects compared to humans. However, there are some non-insect arthropods that have a similar ferritin structure to insects. The target of our research is to compare the ferritin sequences in a variety of arthropods and predict whether ferritin is likely to serve a similar role in these species. We will also be visualizing ferritin proteins using the NCBI tool Cn3D 4.3.

Ferritin in arthropods: A phylogenetic analysis

251st National Meeting (2016)

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