''Haementeria ghilianii'', the giant Amazon leech, is one of the world's largest species of
leeches
Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bo ...
. It can grow to 450 mm (17.7 in) in length and 100 mm (3.9 in) in width. As adults, these leeches are a greyish-brown colour, as opposed to juveniles, which do not have a uniform colour, but rather, a noncontinuous stripe of colour, and patched colouring. They live from the Guianas to the Amazon. The leech produces the
anticoagulant
Anticoagulants, commonly known as blood thinners, are chemical substances that prevent or reduce coagulation of blood, prolonging the clotting time. Some of them occur naturally in blood-eating animals such as leeches and mosquitoes, where the ...
protease
A protease (also called a peptidase, proteinase, or proteolytic enzyme) is an enzyme that catalyzes (increases reaction rate or "speeds up") proteolysis, breaking down proteins into smaller polypeptides or single amino acids, and spurring the ...
hementin Hementin is an anticoagulant protease (fibrinogen lytic enzyme) from the salivary glands of the giant Amazon leech (''Haementeria ghilianii''). Hementin is a calcium-dependent protease with a molecular weight of 80-120 kDa, and it contains 39 amin ...
from its salivary glands.
It was thought to be extinct from the 1890s until the 1970s, when specimens were rediscovered in French Guiana by Dr Roy Sawyer. One of these leeches, dubbed Grandma Moses, founded a successful breeding colony at
UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...
.
[ Article with photograph.]
References
Leeches
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