Crouching Tiger, Hidden Protein: Searching for Insecticidal Toxins in Venom of the Red Tiger Assassin Bug (Havinthus rufovarius).

ABSTRACT: Assassin bugs are venomous insects that prey on other arthropods. Their venom has lethal, paralytic, and liquifying effects when injected into prey, but the toxins responsible for these effects are unknown. To identify bioactive assassin bug toxins, venom was harvested from the red tiger assassin bug (Havinthus rufovarius), an Australian species whose venom has not previously been characterised. The venom was fractionated using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography, and four fractions were found to cause paralysis and death when injected into sheep blowflies (Lucilia cuprina). The amino acid sequences of the major proteins in two of these fractions were elucidated by comparing liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry data with a translated venom-gland tr

SUBMITTER: Wait LC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7822193 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature