Biochemical studies on venom of the rattlesnake, <i>Crotalus atrox atrox</i>

Jiménez-Porras, Jesús M.

doi:10.1002/jez.1401480307

J. Exp. Zool.

1961

DOI: 10.1002/jez.1401480307

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Biochemical studies on venom of the rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox atrox

Jesús M. Jiménez-Porras

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1963

2007

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Cited by 27 publications

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“…Degradation of tissue elastic fibers by venom, in conjunction with the action of venom hyaluronidase (5,14) and collagenolytic enzymes ( 2 , 15) provides a plausible tmec,hanism for the in vivo effects of rattlesnake venom on connective tissues and blood vessels. Summary.…”

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Elastolytic Activity from Venom of the Rattlesnake Crotalus atrox

Simpson¹,

Taylor²

1973

Experimental Biology and Medicine

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Tissue damage from the effects of severe envenomization by the western diamondback rattlesnake Crotalus atrox has been adequately described ( 1 ) . Since destruction of connective tissues is one effect of venom on tissues, a series of studies were instituted to determine the mechanism by which venom degrades fibrous proteins of connective tissues. We have previously observed that rattlesnake venom degrades elastic as well as collagen fibers of mesentery ( 2 ) . The present report gives evidence that rattlesnake venom contains elastolytic enzyme activity.Materials and Methods. The aortas of 200 g rats were excised and incubated in Hanks' tissue culture medium with and without 500 mg % venom.2 At various time intervals following incubation at 37" the aortas were fixed in 10% neutral formalin, embedded in paraffin, sectioned at 6 pm and stained with Verhoff's elastic tissue stain.Elasltindytic activity of venom was also measured by the method of Shotton (3) using Congo red--elastin2 as substrate. Elastin (2.5 mg) was suspended in 7.0 ml of 0.02 M sodium borate buffer (pH 8.8). Venom solutions (1 ml) were added and incubations were allowed to proceed at 37" with constant shaking. After centrifugation, solubilization of dye-proltein complexes was monitored photometrically at 495 nm. Controls for spontaneous liberation of Congo red were included. An estimation of the amount of Congo red-elastin solubilized was made on the basis of complete solubilization with purified pancreatic e l a~t a s e .~ f-BOC-~-alanine p-nitrophenyl esterase activity of venom was determined by a modifica~on of the procedures described b y Viser and Blout (4). The final reaction mixture to assay venom alanine p-niltmphenyl esterase activity contained 3.0 X lW4 M t-BOC-L-alanine p-ni tropheno14 and 10 m M Tris-HC1 and 10 m M piperazine-N-N1abis-(2-ethane sulfonic acid) monosodium monohydrate (PIPES) a t pH 8.0.5 The release of p-nitrophenol was followed spectrophotometrically at 347.5 nm during incubations a t 25". The amount of p-nitrqhenol liberated was calculated using an extinction coefficient of 5.5 X lo3 liters/mole/cm (4). The effect of enzyme inhibitors was determined by assaying venom solutions preincubated 15 min with diethyldithiocarbamate, HgC12, KCN, EDTA and phenyl methyl sulfonyl fluoride at concentrations of 5 mM.

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Elastolytic Activity from Venom of the Rattlesnake Crotalus atrox

Simpson¹,

Taylor²

1973

Experimental Biology and Medicine

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Prey envenomation does not improve digestive performance in western diamondback rattlesnakes (Crotalus atrox)

McCue

2007

J. Exp. Zool.

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Although the toxic properties of snake venoms have been recognized throughout history, very little is known about the adaptive significance of these powerful mixtures. This study examined the popular hypothesis that prey envenomation enhances digestion by influencing the energetic costs of digestion and assimilation, gut passage time, and apparent assimilation efficiency (ASSIM) in western diamondback rattlesnakes (Crotalus atrox), a species whose venom is recognized for its comparatively high proteolytic activities. A complete randomized block design allowed repeated measures of specific dynamic action and gut passage time to be measured in eight snakes ingesting four feeding treatments (i.e., artificially envenomated live mice, artificially envenomated prekilled mice, saline injected live mice, and saline injected prekilled mice). A second experiment measured ASSIM in eight snakes ingesting a series of six artificially envenomated or six saline injected mice meals over an 8-week period. Contrary to expectations, the results of both these experiments revealed that envenomation had no significant influence on any of the measured digestive performance variables. Gut passage time averaged 6 days and ASSIM averaged 79.1%. Twenty-one hours following ingestion, postprandial metabolic rates exhibited factorial increases that averaged 3.9-fold greater than resting metabolic rate. Specific dynamic action lasted on average 88 hr and accounted for 26% of the total ingested energy. The results of this study reinforce the need to systematically examine the potential adaptive advantages that venoms confer on the snakes that produce them.

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Chemistry of animal venoms

Zlotkin

1973

Experientia

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Biochemical studies on venom of the rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox atrox

Cited by 27 publications

References 19 publications

Elastolytic Activity from Venom of the Rattlesnake Crotalus atrox

Elastolytic Activity from Venom of the Rattlesnake Crotalus atrox

Prey envenomation does not improve digestive performance in western diamondback rattlesnakes (Crotalus atrox)

Chemistry of animal venoms

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