A. Kanazawa et S. Koshio, LIPID NUTRITION OF THE SPINY LOBSTER PANULIRUS-JAPONICUS (DECAPODA, LALINURIDAE - A REVIEW, Crustaceana, 67, 1994, pp. 226-232
The nutritional research on crustaceans such as the American lobster H
omarus americanus and the prawn Penaeus japonicus has been reviewed by
several workers. However, nutritional studies on Palinuridae are very
scarce, particularly on the larval stages that are difficult to rear
under artificial conditions. In the present paper, lipid nutrition of
the spiny lobster, Panulirus japonicus, is reviewed and compared with
that of American lobsters or prawns. Crustaceans have been shown to re
quire lipids such as essential fatty acids, phospholipids and sterols.
We investigated tissue uptake of [C-14] n-3 highly unsaturated fatty
acids for the spiny lobster using [C-14] labeled eicosapentaenoic acid
(EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). The results demonstrated that b
oth [C-14] EPA and [C-14] DHA in the muscle and hepatopancreas were in
corporated at higher levels (76 to 91% of total radioactive lipids) in
phospholipids such as phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylinositol th
an in neutral lipids (9 to 24% of total radioactive lipids). It was fo
und that the ability for the bioconversion of EPA and DHA to other fat
ty acids is probably lacking in spiny lobsters. These results agree wi
th those of studies on other Crustacea.