title: Partial transcriptomic profiling of toxins from the venom gland of the scorpion Parabuthus stridulus.
abstract: Since it is an apocrine secretion, scorpion venom is a complex mixture that contains a variety of low-molecular-weight basic proteins (neurotoxins), mucus, salts, as well as a large number of other constituents. Diversity of scorpion venom peptides exists also at the transcript level. Two kinds of venom peptides are typically considered: the neurotoxins and the antimicrobial peptides. We constructed a cDNA library and carried an EST (Expressed Sequence Tag) approach to overview the different peptides in the transcriptome of the telson from Parabuthus stridulus. P. stridulus are psammophilous and highly venomous scorpions endemic to Namibia (Prendini 2004) with medical relevance because of important human envenomation occurrence. We obtained 111 ESTs, 20% of them corresponding to cellular process transcripts, 7% to hypothetical proteins and 17% were sequences without good matches, but the majority of ESTs, 56%, corresponds to transcripts encoding for different venom components, including voltage-gated sodium, potassium and calcium channel toxins, antimicrobial peptides and other venom and cell proteins. To the best of our knowledge this report contains the first transcriptome analysis of genes transcribed by the venomous gland of the scorpion species P. stridulus, belonging to the family of medically important Buthidae scorpions. One hundred and eleven ESTs were analyzed, showing an important number of genes that encode for products similar to known scorpion venom components. In total, 17 unique and novel sequences were indentified. The identification and characterization of these compounds will be a good source of novel pharmacological tools for studying ion channels and the understanding of the physiological effects of toxins in P. stridulus envenomations at a molecular level.
authors.affiliation: Toxicology & Pharmacology, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), O & N 2, PO Box 992, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: bea.mille@pharm.kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Bea G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Mille
authors.affiliation: Toxicology & Pharmacology, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), O & N 2, PO Box 992, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: Steve.Peigneur@pharm.kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Peigneur
authors.affiliation: Toxicology & Pharmacology, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), O & N 2, PO Box 992, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: Elia.DiegoGarcia@pharm.kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Elia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Diego-García
authors.affiliation: Cologne Biocenter, Institute for Zoology, University of Cologne, D-50674 Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: reinhard.predel@uni-koeln.de.
authors.forename: Reinhard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Predel
authors.affiliation: Toxicology & Pharmacology, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), O & N 2, PO Box 992, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: jan.tytgat@pharm.kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tytgat
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D015723:Gene Library; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000235:genetics*; D012604:Scorpion Venoms / Q000235:genetics*; D012605:Scorpions / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D009498:Neurotoxins; D012604:Scorpion Venoms
keywords: K(v) channel; Na(v) channel; Neurotoxin; Scorpion; Venom; cDNA library