Authors : Ghafar Eskandari, Abbas Jolodar and Ahmad Taghavi Moghadam
Abstract: Natural toxins are useful probes for evaluating the involvement of K+ channels in cell activity and for investigating K+ channel structure and localization. In recent years, peptide toxins that block various K+ channels with high affinity have been purified from diverse animal venoms. One polypeptide beta neurotoxin named Txk was isolated from the venom of scorpion Mesobuthus eupeus of Khuzestan. This toxin consists of 91 amino acid residues which modulate voltage-gated sodium channels gating. In this study, cDNA of Txk β-toxin was amplified and sequence of beta neurotoxin compared with M. martensii occitanus Israelis and Tityus costatus however, the comparison suggests that the length of the peptide is close to the long-chain potassium ion channel blocker peptide family.
Ghafar Eskandari, Abbas Jolodar and Ahmad Taghavi Moghadam, 2011. Sequence Analysis of Txk from the Scorpion Mesobuthus eupeus Venom Glands Using Semi-Nested RT-PCR. Research Journal of Biological Sciences, 6: 12-14.