Characterization and description of a potent natural scorpion peptide for control the insects

The excessive use of insecticides has caused resistance to them among insects. The main mechanism of this resistance is new mutations in the sodium channels that reduce the binding of insecticides such as DDT and pyrethroids to these channels. As a result, their lethal effects have been lost. Many industrial toxins and insecticides target sodium channels. But due to the similarity of the channel structures in insects and mammals, it is not possible to use all these toxins. Therefore, we should look for components target just insect sodium channels and don’t affect on those of mammals. Here using RNA extraction and cDNA library synthesis and nucleotide Sanger sequencing of the transcriptome of scorpion Mesobuthus eupeus venom gland we detected a potent specific inhibitor of insect sodium channel. Searching against protein database determine similarity of the intended protein with some insect sodium channel inhibitors. So, it submitted in the GenBank as a certain accession number. It is a ۶۶ amino-acids protein with the molecular weight ۷۴۸۲ g/mol and pI of ۸.۱۲. Homology modeling of this protein revealed that three-dimensional structure of it contains a conserved LCN-type cysteine-stabilized alpha/beta (CS-alpha/beta) domain which stabilizes with the help of six cysteine residues. Further in vivo and in vitro research are needed for confirm the function of the here described protein.

کلیدواژه ها:

Venom components ، Natural insecticides ، Pesticide ، Scorpion proteins