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Atlantic horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus. Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) is an aqueous extract of motile blood cells from the Atlantic horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus.LAL reacts with bacterial endotoxins such as lipopolysaccharides (LPS), which are components of the bacterial capsule, the outermost membrane of cell envelope of gram-negative bacteria.
Horseshoe crabs primarily live at the water's bottom but they can swim if needed. In the modern day, their distribution is limited, only found along the east coasts of North America and South Asia. Horseshoe crabs are often caught for their blood, which contains Limulus amebocyte lysate, a chemical used to detect bacterial endotoxins.
Horseshoe crabs have an 8-hexamer (i. e. 48-chain) hemocyanin. Simple hexamers are found in the spiny lobster Panulirus interruptus and the isopod Bathynomus giganteus . [ 17 ] Peptide chains in crustaceans are about 660 amino acid residues long, and in chelicerates they are about 625.
The horseshoe crab has been scuttling in the ocean and tidal pools for more than 400 million years, playing a vital role in the East Coast ecosystem along with being a prized item for fishing bait ...
Aside from their blood, horseshoe crab populations occupy an important ecological niche in estuarine and coastal habitats along the Mid-Atlantic coast. Adult horseshoe crabs are food for sea ...
Fishermen harvest horseshoe crabs so the animals can be used as bait and so their blood can be used to make medical products. Conservationists have long pushed to limit the harvest of the animals ...
A protein from horseshoe crab blood is also under investigation as a novel antibiotic. [30] Procuring the raw materials for LAL testing involves collecting and bleeding horseshoe crabs from wild populations. Horseshoe crabs are returned to the ocean after bleeding, however, there is a level of mortality and sub-lethal impact involved.
Horseshoe crabs predate the dinosaurs, having inhabited ocean environments for more th. ... Their blood is also used to test for potentially dangerous impurities by drug and medical device makers.