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. 1974 Aug;141(2):383–387. doi: 10.1042/bj1410383

The isolation of an easily reversible postsynaptic toxin from the venom of a sea snake, Laticauda semifasciata

Nobuyo Maeda *, Kenji Takagi *, Nobuo Tamiya *, Yun-Ming Chen †, Chen-Yuan Lee †
PMCID: PMC1168090  PMID: 4455212

Abstract

A weakly neurotoxic component (Ls-III) was isolated by CM-cellulose column chromatography from the venom of a sea snake Laticauda semifasciata. The content of component LsIII was about 10–20% of the venom as determined by u.v. absorption at 280nm. Component LsIII was homogeneous on rechromatography and disc electrophoresis, and its molecular weight was shown to be 7100 by ultracentrifugation and 7300 by sodium dodecyl sulphate–polyacrylamide-gel disc electrophoresis. The isoelectric point of component LsIII was pH7.2. Component LsIII consisted of 66 amino acid residues including 10 half-cystine residues. The LD50 of component LsIII by intramuscular injection was 1.24μg/g body wt. for mice and 0.45μg/g for baby chicks, which is about eight to ten times less toxic than erabutoxins a, b and c, all of which are contained in the same venom. Experiments with three isolated muscle preparations from different species indicated that component LsIII was a post-synaptically acting toxin, the action of which was easily reversed by washing.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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