title: A unified nomenclature for short-chain peptides isolated from scorpion venoms: alpha-KTx molecular subfamilies.
abstract: Peptidyl toxins are used extensively to determine the pharmacology of ion channels. Four families of peptides have been purified from scorpion venom. In this article, the classification of K+-channel-blocking peptides belonging to family 2 peptides and comprising 30-40 amino acids linked by three or four disulfide bridges, will be discussed. Evidence is provided for the existence of 12 molecular subfamilies, named alpha-KTx1-12, containing 49 different peptides. Because of the pharmacological divergence of these peptides, the principle of classification was based on a primary sequence alignment, combined with maximum parsimony and Neighbour-Joining analysis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Toxicology, University of Leuven, E. Van Evenstraat 4, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. jan.tytgat@farm.kuleuven.ac.be
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tytgat
authors.forename: K G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Chandy
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Gutman
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Martin-Eauclaire
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: van der Walt
authors.forename: L D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Possani
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000145:classification*; D026902:Potassium Channel Blockers; D015221:Potassium Channels / Q000187:drug effects; D012604:Scorpion Venoms / Q000737:chemistry*; D009626:Terminology as Topic
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D026902:Potassium Channel Blockers; D015221:Potassium Channels; D012604:Scorpion Venoms; C120911:alpha-KTx4.3 toxin