Venom composition and pain-causing toxins of the Australian great carpenter bee Xylocopa aruana.

ABSTRACT: Most species of bee are capable of delivering a defensive sting which is often painful. A solitary lifestyle is the ancestral state of bees and most extant species are solitary, but information on bee venoms comes predominantly from studies on eusocial species. In this study we investigated the venom composition of the Australian great carpenter bee, Xylocopa aruana Ritsema, 1876. We show that the venom is relatively simple, composed mainly of one small amphipathic peptide (XYTX₁-Xa1a), with lesser amounts of an apamin homologue (XYTX₂-Xa2a) and a venom phospholipase-A₂ (PLA₂). XYTX₁-Xa1a is homologous to, and shares a similar mode-of-action to melittin and the bombilitins, the major components of the venoms of the eusocial Apis mellif

SUBMITTER: Shi N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9780326 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature