The disulfide bridges of toxin 2 from the scorpion Centruroides noxius Hoffmann and its three-dimensional structure calculated using the coordinates of variant 3 from Centruroides sculpturatus

FEBS Lett. 1994 Jun 20;347(1):59-62. doi: 10.1016/0014-5793(94)00507-9.

Abstract

The disulfide bridges of toxin 2 from the venom of the scorpion Centruroides noxius Hoffmann were found by amino acid sequence determination of fragments of native toxin, produced by enzymatic cleavage and separated by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). They are: Cys12-Cys65, Cys16-Cys41, Cys25-Cys46 and Cys29-Cys48. The coordinates of the X-ray diffraction structure of toxin variant 3 of C. sculpturatus [(1980) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77, 6496-6500] were used to construct a three-dimensional model of toxin 2. All the amino acid replacements were easily accommodated, and the modeled structure reveals a clustered pattern of sequence variation, which may help to identify residues responsible for functional differences among toxins of mammals and insects.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Cysteine / chemistry
  • Disulfides / chemistry
  • Humans
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Neurotoxins / chemistry*
  • Protein Conformation
  • Scorpion Venoms / chemistry*
  • Scorpions / chemistry*
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid

Substances

  • Centruroides neurotoxin, variant 3
  • Disulfides
  • Neurotoxins
  • Scorpion Venoms
  • toxin 2, Centruroides noxius
  • Cysteine