Planas Enric, Zobel-Thropp Pamela A, Ribera Carles, Binford Greta
Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio) and Departament de Biologia Animal, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
Department of Biology, Lewis & Clark College, 0615 SW Palatine Hill Rd., Portland, OR 97219, USA.
Toxicon. 2015 Jan;93:11-9. doi: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2014.10.005. Epub 2014 Oct 18.
The medical importance of Loxosceles spiders has promoted extensive research on different aspects of their venoms. Most of the reported cases of loxoscelism have occurred in the Americas, and thus, much work has focused on North and South American Loxosceles species. Interestingly, loxoscelism cases are rare in the Mediterranean Basin although Loxosceles rufescens, endemic to the Mediterranean, is an abundant spider even in human-altered areas. Thus, it has been suggested that the venom of L. rufescens could be of less medical relevance than that of its congeners. In this study, we challenge this hypothesis by using multiple approaches to study venom variation in selected species and lineages from the Mediterranean Basin and the Canary Islands. We found that SMase D activity, the key bioactive component of Loxosceles venom, is comparable to American species that are confirmed to have medically relevant bites. The venom protein composition using SDS-PAGE presents some differences among regional Loxosceles taxa in banding pattern and intensity, mostly between the Canarian and L. rufescens lineages. Differences between these species also exist in the expression of different paralogs of the SicTox gene family, with the Canarian species being less diverse. In conclusion, our results do not support the challenged hypothesis, and suggest that venom of these species may indeed be as potent as other Loxosceles species. Pending confirmation of loxoscelism with direct evidence of Loxosceles bites with species identification by professionals, Loxosceles in the Mediterranean region should conservatively be considered medically relevant taxa.
遁蛛的医学重要性推动了对其毒液不同方面的广泛研究。大多数已报告的毒蛛中毒病例发生在美洲,因此,许多工作都集中在北美洲和南美洲的遁蛛种类上。有趣的是,在地中海盆地,毒蛛中毒病例很少见,尽管地中海特有的红螯蛛即使在人类改造的区域也是一种数量众多的蜘蛛。因此,有人提出,红螯蛛的毒液在医学上的相关性可能低于其同属的其他蜘蛛。在本研究中,我们通过多种方法对来自地中海盆地和加那利群岛的选定种类和谱系的毒液变异进行研究,对这一假设提出了质疑。我们发现,鞘磷脂酶D活性是遁蛛毒液的关键生物活性成分,与已证实具有医学相关咬伤的美洲种类相当。使用SDS-PAGE的毒液蛋白质组成在区域遁蛛分类群之间的条带模式和强度上存在一些差异,主要存在于加那利群岛种类和红螯蛛谱系之间。这些种类在SicTox基因家族不同旁系同源物的表达上也存在差异,加那利群岛种类的差异较小。总之,我们的结果不支持所质疑的假设,并表明这些种类的毒液可能确实与其他遁蛛种类一样具有毒性。在通过专业人员进行种类鉴定,以直接证据证实毒蛛咬伤导致毒蛛中毒之前,地中海地区的遁蛛应保守地被视为具有医学相关性的分类群。