What is cuticle and its function?

The cuticle is widely discharged by the epidermis and helps in preventing water loss and infection by parasites. The primary function of the cuticle acts as a permeability barrier in plants to prevent the evaporation of the water from the outer epidermal surface.

What is the cuticle called?

eponychium: thin skin covering (epidermis) at the base of the nails on the dorsal surface; also called cuticle.

What is cuticle in plants in biology?

Plant cuticle is the outermost layer of plants, which covers leaves, fruits, flowers, and non-woody stems of higher plants. It protects plants against drought, extreme temperatures, UV radiation, chemical attack, mechanical injuries, and pathogen/pest infection.

What is the definition of cuticle of nail?

The cuticle is a layer of clear skin located along the bottom edge of your finger or toe. This area is known as the nail bed. The cuticle function is to protect new nails from bacteria when they grow out from the nail root. The area around the cuticle is delicate. It can get dry, damaged, and infected.

What is a cuticle in animals?

The cuticle refers to the various forms of the outermost covering of organisms. In humans, the cuticle is the outermost layer of the skin epidermis and is comprised of keratinocytes. In some animals, such as the invertebrates, the cuticle is the superficial layer that covers the epidermis.

What is cuticle made of?

Cuticle is built of cutin, waxes and polysaccharides. The hydrophobic biopolymer cutin is a polyester of hydroxy and/or epoxy fatty acids, with the addition of a relatively low amount of glycerol, and sometimes phenolics.

Why is it called a cuticle?

cuticle (n.) 1610s, “outer layer of the skin, epidermis,” from Latin cuticula, diminutive of cutis “skin,” from PIE root *(s)keu- “to cover, conceal” (source also of hide (n. 1)). Specialized sense of “skin at the base of the nail” is from 1907.

What is cuticle in platyhelminthes?

Parasitic flatworms (Platyhelminth) possess a cuticle on ectoderm but it is flexible, and free of mineral, thus cannot be considered as exoskeleton.

Who discovered cuticle?

The term ‘cuticle’ was introduced in the field of plants by Grew (1672) and Malpighi (1675) for referring to the external part of the their organs. The concept of the cuticle as a distinct layer from the epidermis was simultaneously introduced by Brongniart (1830) and Henslow (1831).