Individual variability in Tityus serrulatus (Scorpiones, Buthidae) venom elicited by matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry

Abstract

Venom variability in specimens of Tityus serrulatus scorpion was assessed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS) analyses. An expanded time lag venom extraction protocol was carried out using ten scorpions to study individual variations that might occur due to different rates in protein expression and/or processing. The first extraction of venom was made from the animals after 20 days of starvation, which allowed the venom gland to be filled up. The second extraction event was carried out 24 hours after the first one. The third was 8 days after the first extraction. By means of MALDI-TOF analyses, important variations were observed in venoms of a single specimen extracted at different times, especially in latter extraction events. These variations are most probably related to dynamics in cell gland production. Since T. serrulatus is a parthenogenetic species, sexual variations are naturally excluded and we did not expect intra-specific variations, which was confirmed. Knowledge of individual venom variability is extremely important to avoid misunderstandings in the use of venom proteomic analysis as a taxonomic tool.

Intraspecific variation of venom injected by fish-hunting Conussnails

“…Sequence s4b is not included in this and Her, 2000). Variation of the peptide profiles of these other venomous animals has been associated with sex (Binford, 2001;Cristina de Oliveira et al, 1999;Escoubas et al, 2002), diet (Daltry et al, 1996b), age (Escoubas et al, 2002), geography (Binford, 2001;Creer et al, 2003), season (Monteiro et al, 1998b) and venom regeneration time (Pimenta et al, 2003). Studies controlling many of these factors have still observed venom variation, implying that intraspecific differences can be a result of genetic as well as environmental factors (Daltry et al, 1996a;Francischetti et al, 2000;Kalapothakis and Chavez-Olortegui, 1997;Monteiro et al, 1998a,b).…”

Captura do escorpião Bothriurus bonariensis e determinação da fração proteica de seu veneno

“…O termo proteoma foi introduzido há alguns anos e descrito como todas as proteínas expressas em um genoma ou tecido 12 . Recentemente, abordagens proteômicas têm sido empreguadas na avaliação do veneno de escorpiões 13 . A evolução desta abordagem experimental tem como resultado o desenvolvimento, a integração e a automatização de uma variedade de técnicas e equipamentos que permitem separar, identificar, quantificar e caracterizar proteínas, bem como relacionar essa informação com a obtida por outras abordagens, através da bioinformática 17 .…”

Mesobuthus eupeus ve Mesobuthus gibbosus Akrep Venom Proteinlerinin Elektroforetik Karşılaştırılması

“…Therefore stings by Mesobuthus species are more frequent than those by other scorpion species [6][7][8][9][10] . In many studies, gel electrophoresis, electrofocusing or liquid chromatography have already been used to detection of protein pattern of animal venoms, even if the relatively low resolution of the analytical methods 3,5 .…”