title: Characterizing Tityus discrepans scorpion venom from a fractal perspective: Venom complexity, effects of captivity, sexual dimorphism, differences among species.
abstract: A characteristic of venom elution patterns, shared with many other complex systems, is that many their features cannot be properly described with statistical or euclidean concepts. The understanding of such systems became possible with Mandelbrot's fractal analysis. Venom elution patterns were produced using the reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with 1 mg of venom. One reason for the lack of quantitative analyses of the sources of venom variability is parametrizing the venom chromatograms' complexity. We quantize this complexity by means of an algorithm which estimates the contortedness (Q) of a waveform. Fractal analysis was used to compare venoms and to measure inter- and intra-specific venom variability. We studied variations in venom complexity derived from gender, seasonal and environmental factors, duration of captivity in the laboratory, technique used to milk venom.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory on Cellular Neuropharmacology, Centro de Biofísica y Bioquímica, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), Apartado 20632, Caracas 1020A, Venezuela.
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: D'Suze
authors.affiliation: Laboratory on Cellular Neuropharmacology, Centro de Biofísica y Bioquímica, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), Apartado 20632, Caracas 1020A, Venezuela.
authors.forename: Moisés
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sandoval
authors.affiliation: Laboratory on Cellular Neuropharmacology, Centro de Biofísica y Bioquímica, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), Apartado 20632, Caracas 1020A, Venezuela. Electronic address: csevcik@ivic.gob.ve.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sevcik
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049628:Body Size; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005260:Female; D017709:Fractals; D007928:Lethal Dose 50; D008297:Male; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D012604:Scorpion Venoms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012605:Scorpions / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000737:chemistry*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012984:Software; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D012604:Scorpion Venoms
keywords: Contortedness; Elution pattern; Fractal; Sexual dimorphism; Similarity; Venom