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Target-Specificity in Scorpions; Comparing Lethality of Scorpion Venoms across Arthropods and Vertebrates.

ABSTRACT: Scorpions use their venom in defensive situations as well as for subduing prey. Since some species of scorpion use their venom more in defensive situations than others, this may have led to selection for differences in effectiveness in defensive situations. Here, we compared the LD₅₀ of the venom of 10 species of scorpions on five different species of target organisms; two insects and three vertebrates. We found little correlation between the target species in the efficacy of the different scorpion venoms. Only the two insects showed a positive correlation, indicating that they responded similarly to the panel of scorpion venoms. We discuss the lack of positive correlation between the vertebrate target species in the light of their evolution and development. When comparing the responses of the target systems to individual scorpion venoms pairwise, we found that closely related scorpion species tend to elicit a similar response pattern across the target species. This was further reflected in a significant phylogenetic signal across the scorpion phylogeny for the LD₅₀ in mice and in zebrafish. We also provide the first mouse LD₅₀ value for Grosphusgrandidieri.

SUBMITTER: van der Meijden A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5666359 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Target-Specificity in Scorpions; Comparing Lethality of Scorpion Venoms across Arthropods and Vertebrates.

van der Meijden Arie A Koch Bjørn B van der Valk Tom T Vargas-Muñoz Leidy J LJ Estrada-Gómez Sebastian S

Toxins 20171004 10

Scorpions use their venom in defensive situations as well as for subduing prey. Since some species of scorpion use their venom more in defensive situations than others, this may have led to selection for differences in effectiveness in defensive situations. Here, we compared the LD<sub>50</sub> of the venom of 10 species of scorpions on five different species of target organisms; two insects and three vertebrates. We found little correlation between the target species in the efficacy of the diff ...[more]

PMID: 28976932

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Project description:BackgroundScorpions are widely known for the neurotoxic effects of their venoms, which contain peptides affecting ionic channels. Although Colombia is recognized for its scorpion diversity, only a few studies are available describing the venom content.MethodsIn this descriptive study, we analyzed the MS/MS sequence, electrophoretic and chromatographic profile linked to a bioinformatics analysis of the scorpions Chactas reticulatus (Chactidae), Opisthacanthus elatus (Hormuridae), Centruroides edwardsii (Buthidae) and Tityus asthenes (Buthidae) from Colombia.ResultsEach scorpion showed a specific electrophoretic and chromatographic profile. The electrophoretic profiles indicate the presence of high molecular mass compounds in all venoms, with a predominance of low molecular mass compounds in the Buthidae species. Chromatographic profiles showed a similar pattern as the electrophoretic profiles. From the MS/MS analysis of the chromatographic collected fractions, we obtained internal peptide sequences corresponding to proteins reported in scorpions from the respective family of the analyzed samples. Some of these proteins correspond to neurotoxins affecting ionic channels, antimicrobial peptides and metalloproteinase-like fragments. In the venom of Tityus asthenes, the MSn analysis allowed the detection of two toxins affecting sodium channels covering 50% and 84% of the sequence respectively, showing 100% sequence similarity. Two sequences from Tityus asthenes showed sequence similarity with a phospholipase from Opisthacanthus cayaporum indicating the presence of this type of toxin in this species for the first time. One sequence matching a hypothetical secreted protein from Hottentotta judaicus was found in three of the studied venoms. We found that this protein is common in the Buthidae family whereas it has been reported in other families - such as Scorpionidae - and may be part of the evolutionary puzzle of venoms in these arachnids.ConclusionButhidae venoms from Colombia can be considered an important source of peptides similar to toxins affecting ionic channels. An interesting predicted antimicrobial peptide was detected in three of the analyzed venoms.

Dataset Information

Target-Specificity in Scorpions; Comparing Lethality of Scorpion Venoms across Arthropods and Vertebrates.

Publications

Target-Specificity in Scorpions; Comparing Lethality of Scorpion Venoms across Arthropods and Vertebrates.

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