title: Novel polypeptide toxins with crab lethality from the sea anemone Anemonia erythraea.
abstract: The sea anemone Anemonia erythraea was found to contain polypeptide toxins with crab lethality as well as hemolysins. Three polypeptide toxins (AETX I, II and III) were isolated by gel filtration on Sephadex G-50 and reverse-phase HPLC on TSKgel ODS-120T. A geographic variation in toxin composition was suggested. The LD50 against crabs of AETX I, II and III were estimated to be 2.2, 0.53 and 0.28 microg/kg, respectively, but none of the toxins showed lethality in mice. The amino acid sequences of the three toxins were deduced from sequencings of the whole molecules and their enzymatic fragments. Amino acid analyses and molecular mass determinations supported the accuracy of the deduced sequences. AETX I, comprising 47 amino acid residues including 6 half-Cys residues, is an analog of sea anemone type I toxins. On the other hand, AETX II and III, which are highly homologous with each other, are quite distinct from the known sea anemone polypeptide toxins in that they are composed of 59 residues including 10 half-Cys residues. Interestingly, both toxins have sequence similarities with neurotoxins isolated from the Brazilian 'armed' spider Phoneutria nigriventer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Fisheries, Minato-ku, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shiomi
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: X Y
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shimakura
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nagashima
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ishida
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis; D000818:Animals; D003386:Brachyura / Q000187:drug effects; D003064:Cnidarian Venoms / Q000302:isolation & purification; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D007928:Lethal Dose 50; D008387:Marine Toxins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000633:toxicity; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012615:Sea Anemones / Q000737:chemistry*; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: C105649:AETX I toxin; C105650:AETX II toxin; C105651:AETX III toxin; D000596:Amino Acids; D003064:Cnidarian Venoms; D008387:Marine Toxins; D010455:Peptides