About Procambarus virginalis Lyko, 2017
Procambarus virginalis Lyko, 2017, commonly called marbled crayfish or Marmorkrebs, is a parthenogenetic crayfish first identified in the German pet trade in 1995. Marmorkrebs is the German term for marbled crayfish. This species is closely related to Procambarus fallax, the slough crayfish, which is widely distributed across Florida. No natural wild populations of marbled crayfish have been confirmed to exist. Information from one of the original pet traders about the species' origin was assessed as totally confusing and unreliable. Marbled crayfish are consumed as food in Madagascar, and human interest in eating them may help the species spread. Protein isolates made from whole-body homogenate of Procambarus virginalis, which includes the chitinous exoskeleton, are hypothesized to be high in branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) and leucine (Leu), making them potentially useful for biomedical research or as additive ingredients in BCAA and Leu supplements. This crayfish species provides 6.36 to 7.39 grams of Leu per 100 grams of dry matter, when the total protein content is only 43 to 48 percent. Whole-body protein isolates from marbled crayfish have a Leu coefficient of 18.41±2.51 percent of total amino acids, and a BCAA coefficient of 28.76±2.39 percent of total amino acids. These values are comparable to or higher than the coefficients of casein, an industrial gold standard reference, which has a Leu coefficient of 8.65±0.08 percent and a BCAA coefficient of 20.03±0.73 percent.
