title: Profiling the resting venom gland of the scorpion Tityus stigmurus through a transcriptomic survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The scorpion Tityus stigmurus is widely distributed in Northeastern Brazil and known to cause severe human envenoming, inducing pain, hyposthesia, edema, erythema, paresthesia, headaches and vomiting. The present study uses a transcriptomic approach to characterize the gene expression profile from the non-stimulated venom gland of Tityus stigmurus scorpion.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A cDNA library was constructed and 540 clones were sequenced and grouped into 153 clusters, with one or more ESTs (expressed sequence tags). Forty-one percent of ESTs belong to recognized toxin-coding sequences, with transcripts encoding antimicrobial toxins (AMP-like) being the most abundant, followed by alfa KTx- like, beta KTx-like, beta NaTx-like and alfa NaTx-like. Our analysis indicated that 34% of the transcripts encode "other possible venom molecules", which correspond to anionic peptides, hypothetical secreted peptides, metalloproteinases, cystein-rich peptides and lectins. Fifteen percent of ESTs are similar to cellular transcripts. Sequences without good matches corresponded to 11%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This investigation provides the first global view of gene expression of the venom gland from Tityus stigmurus under resting conditions. This approach enables characterization of a large number of venom gland component molecules, which belong either to known or non yet described types of venom peptides and proteins from the Buthidae family.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Tecnologia e Biotecnologia Farmacêutica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Av, Gal, Cordeiro de Farias, s/n, CEP 59010-180 Natal, RN, Brazil.
authors.forename: Diego D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Almeida
authors.forename: Katia C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Scortecci
authors.forename: Leonardo S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Kobashi
authors.forename: Lucymara F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Agnez-Lima
authors.forename: Silvia R B
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Medeiros
authors.forename: Arnóbio A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Silva-Junior
authors.forename: Inácio de L M
authors.initials: Ide L
authors.lastname: Junqueira-de-Azevedo
authors.forename: Matheus de F
authors.initials: Mde F
authors.lastname: Fernandes-Pedrosa
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015723:Gene Library; D018969:Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D037102:Lectins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D012604:Scorpion Venoms / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012605:Scorpions / Q000378:metabolism*; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D018969:Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Proteins; D037102:Lectins; D009498:Neurotoxins; D010455:Peptides; D012604:Scorpion Venoms; C017422:hypotensin (snake)