Protein profile of book gills and carapace of malaysian horseshoe crab, Tachypleus tridentatus

Abstract

Horseshoe crab is a well known species that is considered as a living fossil and have been studied a long time ago. However, the correct information of the importance of book gills and carapace of Tachypleus tridentatus is not yet fully understood eventhough these two body parts are very important for their survival. This research was conducted to quantify and determine the protein profile from the exract of book gills and carapace of T tridentatus. Bradford Protein Assay was done to quantify the protein extracted using the solubilization buffer. The concentration of protein from the book gills and carapace of T tridentatus were 1.445 μg/ μl and 1.398 μg/ μl respectively. The proteins of the two parts were profiled using Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate-Polyacrilamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) where 11 bands of protein profile for book gills and 12 bands of protein for carapace which were classified into 5 different classes of peptide. This profiling provides basic information to understand more about the importance of the parts for horseshoe crab.