ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2008
Assembling an arsenal, the scorpion way.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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18 citing papers in PubMed, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- Proteomic characterization and lethality of the venom of the Black Judean scorpion, Hottentotta judaicus (Buthidae): expanded toxin diversity and revisited toxicological significance.Archives of toxicology · 2025Article
- Inhibitory Effect of an Acidic Peptide on the Activity of an Antimicrobial Peptide from the ScorpionMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Article
- First Transcriptome Analysis of Iranian Scorpion,Iranian journal of pharmaceutical research : IJPR · 2018Article
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- Molecular phylogeny and evolution of the cone snails (Gastropoda, Conoidea).Molecular phylogenetics and evolution · 2014Article
- The Mediterranean scorpion Mesobuthus gibbosus (Scorpiones, Buthidae): transcriptome analysis and organization of the genome encoding chlorotoxin-like peptides.BMC genomics · 2014Article
- Low structural variation in the host-defense peptide repertoire of the dwarf clawed frog Hymenochirus boettgeri (Pipidae).PloS one · 2014Article
- Scorpion venom components that affect ion-channels function.Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology · 2013Review
- Origin and functional diversification of an amphibian defense peptide arsenal.PLoS genetics · 2013Article
- Mass fingerprinting of the venom and transcriptome of venom gland of scorpion Centruroides tecomanus.PloS one · 2013Article
- Atypical reactive center Kunitz-type inhibitor from the sea anemone Heteractis crispa.Marine drugs · 2012Article
- Macroevolution of venom apparatus innovations in auger snails (Gastropoda; Conoidea; Terebridae).Molecular phylogenetics and evolution · 2012Article
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- Comparative venom gland transcriptome analysis of the scorpion Lychas mucronatus reveals intraspecific toxic gene diversity and new venomous components.BMC genomics · 2010Article
- Transcriptome analysis of the venom gland of the scorpion Scorpiops jendeki: implication for the evolution of the scorpion venom arsenal.BMC genomics · 2009Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFor survival, scorpions depend on a wide array of short neurotoxic polypeptides. The venoms of scorpions from the most studied group, the Buthida, are a rich source of small, 23-78 amino acid-long peptides, well packed by either three or four disulfide bridges that affect ion channel function in excitable and non-excitable cells.
resultsIn this work, by constructing a toxin transcripts data set from the venom gland of the scorpion Buthus occitanus israelis, we were able to follow the evolutionary path leading to mature toxin diversification and suggest a mechanism for leader peptide hyper-conservation. Toxins from each family were more closely related to one another than to toxins from other species, implying that fixation of duplicated genes followed speciation, suggesting early gene conversion events. Upon fixation, the mature toxin-coding domain was subjected to diversifying selection resulting in a significantly higher substitution rate that can be explained solely by diversifying selection. In contrast to the mature peptide, the leader peptide sequence was hyper-conserved and characterized by an atypical sub-neutral synonymous substitution rate. We interpret this as resulting from purifying selection acting on both the peptide and, as reported here for the first time, the DNA sequence, to create a toxin family-specific codon bias.
conclusionWe thus propose that scorpion toxin genes were shaped by selective forces acting at three levels, namely (1) diversifying the mature toxin, (2) conserving the leader peptide amino acid sequence and intriguingly, (3) conserving the leader DNA sequences.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.