title: Moving pieces in a venomic puzzle: unveiling post-translationally modified toxins from Tityus serrulatus.
abstract: Besides being a public health problem, scorpion venoms have a potential biotechnological application since they contain peptides that may be used as drug leads and/or to reveal novel pharmacological targets. A comprehensive Tityus serrulatus venom proteome study with emphasis on the phosphoproteome and N-glycoproteome was performed to improve our knowledge on the molecular diversity of the proteinaceous toxins. We combined two peptide identification methodologies, i.e., database search and de novo sequencing, to achieve a more comprehensive overview of the molecular diversity of the venoms. A total of 147 proteins were identified, including neurotoxins, enzymes, bradykinin-potentiating peptides, and molecules with antimicrobial and diuretic activities. Among those, three proteins were found to be phosphorylated, and one N-glycosylated. Finally, cleavage of toxin polypeptide chains seems to be a common post-translational modification in the venom since 80% of the identified molecules were, in fact, products of toxins proteolysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. tvbraga@bmb.sdu.dk
authors.forename: Thiago
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Verano-Braga
authors.forename: Alexandre A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Dutra
authors.forename: Ileana R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: León
authors.forename: Marcella N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Melo-Braga
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roepstorff
authors.forename: Adriano M C
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Pimenta
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kjeldsen
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000378:metabolism; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D020543:Proteome / Q000378:metabolism*; D012604:Scorpion Venoms / Q000378:metabolism*; D012605:Scorpions / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D006023:Glycoproteins; D009498:Neurotoxins; D010750:Phosphoproteins; D020543:Proteome; D012604:Scorpion Venoms