화학공학소재연구정보센터
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Vol.294, No.4, 760-763, 2002
Novel proteinaceous toxins from the nematocyst venom of the Okinawan sea anemone Phyllodiscus semoni Kwietniewski
The Okinawan sea anemone Phyllodiscus semoni is known to cause cases of severe stinging. We isolated P. semoni toxins 60A and 60B (PsTX-60A and PsTX-60B; ca. 60 kDa) as the major toxins from the isolated nematocysts of this species for the first time. PsTX-60A and PsTX-60B showed lethal toxicity to the shrimp Palaemon paucidence when administered via intraperitoneal injection (LD50 values: 800-900 and 800 mug/kg, respectively) and hemolytic activity toward a 0.8% suspension of sheep red blood cells (ED50 values: 600 and 300 ng/ml, respectively). Furthermore, we sequenced the cDNA encoding PsTX-60A. The deduced amino acid sequence of PsTX-60A did not show any similarity to previously reported proteins. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of PsTX-60B showed homology with that of PsTX-60A. These toxins represent a novel class of cytolytic proteinaceous toxins. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.