gabrieldezzi
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2023
- Messages
- 115
I'm currently on track to graduate high school and continue my academic career within biology; and something that's always interested me was the uses of tarantulas (particularly venom) in the scientific field, and how potentially I can combine my love for tarantulas with my love of pharmaceutical science. This is a very known breakthrough, though I feel as it would be interested to share with my Arachnoboards colleagues.
A common peptide in several tarantula venom compositions is β-theraphototoxin, which inhibits sodium-gated ion channels, particularly a nociceptor cation channel known as TRPA1. In common terms, it can reduce pain and inflammation in a user through inhibiting that nociceptor cation channel. It is homologous with the toxin protoxin-I found in Thrixopelma pruriens, meaning they have evolved alongside eachother and suggests a common toxin ancestor in the Theraphosinae subfamily. I particularly wanted to measure gene expression similarities within Ceratogyrus darlingi (Rear-Horned Baboon Tarantula), and Pterinochilus murinus (Orange Baboon Tarantula), as these are both Old World species native to eastern and southern Africa.
My results were interesting.
Highlighted purple/blue amino acids are identical to eachother, The top being β-theraphototoxin found in Pterinochilus murinus and the bottom being the same toxin found in Ceratogyrus darlingi. As they are different species in different genera, it's fair to assume there would be some genetic difference between the expression of the protein. However, a 66.67% match in the amino acid sequencing strikes me as significant. Especially as aforementioned both of these species are native to southern and eastern Africa and are associated with very painful bites.
Of course, through basic evolutionary reasoning, we can conclude that there is some phylogenetic relation between both baboon species. However, I do find it interesting that a very similar protein (protoxin-I) is being found in species native to South America. Is it possible that millions of years ago when the continents of South America and Africa were connected, we could have seemed some ancestral tarantula that exhibited a common ancestor peptide to both β-theraphototoxin and protoxin-I? Hopefully this reaches the fellow biology nerds of the Arachnoboards community lol.
A common peptide in several tarantula venom compositions is β-theraphototoxin, which inhibits sodium-gated ion channels, particularly a nociceptor cation channel known as TRPA1. In common terms, it can reduce pain and inflammation in a user through inhibiting that nociceptor cation channel. It is homologous with the toxin protoxin-I found in Thrixopelma pruriens, meaning they have evolved alongside eachother and suggests a common toxin ancestor in the Theraphosinae subfamily. I particularly wanted to measure gene expression similarities within Ceratogyrus darlingi (Rear-Horned Baboon Tarantula), and Pterinochilus murinus (Orange Baboon Tarantula), as these are both Old World species native to eastern and southern Africa.
My results were interesting.
Highlighted purple/blue amino acids are identical to eachother, The top being β-theraphototoxin found in Pterinochilus murinus and the bottom being the same toxin found in Ceratogyrus darlingi. As they are different species in different genera, it's fair to assume there would be some genetic difference between the expression of the protein. However, a 66.67% match in the amino acid sequencing strikes me as significant. Especially as aforementioned both of these species are native to southern and eastern Africa and are associated with very painful bites.
Of course, through basic evolutionary reasoning, we can conclude that there is some phylogenetic relation between both baboon species. However, I do find it interesting that a very similar protein (protoxin-I) is being found in species native to South America. Is it possible that millions of years ago when the continents of South America and Africa were connected, we could have seemed some ancestral tarantula that exhibited a common ancestor peptide to both β-theraphototoxin and protoxin-I? Hopefully this reaches the fellow biology nerds of the Arachnoboards community lol.
