Hans Zauner

**The Center for Antibody Technologies headed by Professor Andreas
Laustsen-Kiel (Technical University of Denmark) used high-throughput
methods to systematically analyze the venoms of the 26 most deadly
snakes in sub-Saharan Africa. The results are now [published in
*Gigascience*](https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giac121).**

Each year, around 500,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from snake
bites, causing an estimated 7,000 to 20,000 deaths. Many snake species
native to the region, such as the feared black mamba, are classified as
species of the highest medical importance by the World Health
Organization. Using systematic approaches and state of-the-art methods
to better understand the composition and function of these snakes'
venoms is a medical priority (see also [this recent Review
Article](https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giac024) in *Gigascience*,
focusing on the role of genomics in this effort, and [this
article](https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giac048) for a general
perspective on modern venomics).

#### Proteomics of 26 deadly African snakes {#proteomics-of-26-deadly-african-snakes .wp-block-heading}

The snakes investigated in the new proteomic and functional study belong
to two families, elapids -- including, among others, the black and green
mambas and the ring-necked spitting cobra, also called the rinkhals --
and vipers such as the Puff adder and the Gaboon viper. 

::: {.wp-block-image}
<figure class="aligncenter size-large">
<img
src="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mamba.jpg"
class="wp-image-4679" loading="lazy" decoding="async"
srcset="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mamba.jpg 700w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mamba-300x205.jpg 300w"
sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" width="700" height="479" />
<figcaption>The green mamba. photo: <a
href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mamba_Dendroaspis_angusticeps.jpg">Holger
Krisp, CC-BY</a></figcaption>
</figure>
:::

The composition and function of snake venoms is complex and varies a lot
from species to species.

The authors describe a general pattern with elapid venoms containing
large amounts of a class of proteins called "three finger toxins", which
act by blocking neuronal transmission or by killing cells; as well as
phospholipases A~2~ (PLA~2~s), a class of enzymes that is found in many
animal venoms. The viper venoms, on the other hand, are dominated by a
different protein mix, including PLA~2~s, but also substantial
quantities of other enzymes such as Snake Venom Metalloproteinases and
Snake Venom Serine Proteinases.

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large">
<img
src="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Fig1_SnakeVenomics.jpg"
class="wp-image-4680" loading="lazy" decoding="async"
srcset="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Fig1_SnakeVenomics.jpg 642w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Fig1_SnakeVenomics-300x216.jpg 300w"
sizes="(max-width: 642px) 100vw, 642px" width="642" height="463" />
<figcaption>Venom composition differs substantially between elapids and
vipers. Fig. from <a
href="https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giac121">Nguyen et
al.</a></figcaption>
</figure>

Venom compositions of most of these snakes have been described before,
but the venoms of two species -- of Anchieta's cobra (*Naja anchietae*)
and of the white-bellied carpet viper (*Echis leucogaster*) -- are
characterized for the first time in the new *GigaScience* study. 

#### An integrate approach to understand venom composition and function {#an-integrate-approach-to-understand-venom-composition-and-function .wp-block-heading}

The major advance of the work, however, is the parallel processing of
samples from 26 snakes in the same high-throughput pipeline; combined
with a range of experimental approaches to functionally characterize
many venoms in parallel, in a standardized setting. In contrast,
previous studies on the venom compositions of snakes from sub-Sahara
Africa have typically been performed in separate studies with only one
or a handful of species each, and often with little or no data on
functional aspects. The previous studies also used variable protocols,
making it difficult to reconcile and compare data from different
origins.

The new integrated approach demonstrated in the *Gigascience* article,
including 26 snake species and a range of functional assays, provides a
solid foundation for further studies of snake biology and the
development of new antivenoms.

**Read the GigaScience article:**

Nguyen GTT; O'Brien C; Wouters Y; Seneci L; Gallissa-Calzado A;
Campos-Pinto I; Ahmadi S; Laustsen AH; Ljungars A **High-throughput
proteomics and in vitro functional characterization of the 26 medically
most important elapids and vipers from sub-Saharan Africa**. GigaScience
2022. <https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giac121>

Supporting data in GigaDB: <http://dx.doi.org/10.5524/102333>

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The post [What's your poison? Venom composition of 26 deadly
snakes](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/snake-venom/){rel="nofollow"}
appeared first on
[GigaBlog](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog){rel="nofollow"}.


<strong>
 The Center for Antibody Technologies headed by Professor Andreas Laustsen-Kiel (Technical University of Denmark) used high-throughput methods to systematically analyze the venoms of the 26 most deadly snakes in sub-Saharan Africa. The results are now published in
 <em>
  Gigascience
 </em>
 .
</strong>
Each year, around 500,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from snake bites, causing an estimated 7,000 to 20,000 deaths.

What’s your poison? Venom composition of 26 deadly snakes

University of Glasgow

Roderic Page

I\'ve started to come across more taxonomic books in Google Books, such
as Catalogue of the specimens of snakes in the collection of the British
museum by John Edward Gray. Google books provides a nice widget for
embedding views of books. There is [tool for generating the Javascript
code](http://code.google.com/apis/books/docs/preview-wizard.html). Note
that in Blogger (which I use to create this blog) you need to make sure
that theJavascript occurs on a single line with no line breaks for it to
work.  
  

  
  
The Javascript used (with linebreaks that must be removed before using)
is:  

``` {style="border: 1px solid rgb(199, 207, 213); margin: 20px 0pt; padding: 15px; background: rgb(241, 245, 249)"}
   src="http://books.google.com/books/previewlib.js">

<br />GBS_insertEmbeddedViewer('OCLC:4208784',425,400);<br />
```

  
  
I stumbled across this book whilst searching for the original record for
the snake *Enhydris punctata*. Confusingly, the Catalogue of Life lists
this snake as [*Enhydris punctata* GRAY
1849](http://www.catalogueoflife.org/show_species_details.php?record_id=4461610),
implying that Gray\'s original name still stands, whereas in fact it
should be *Enhydris punctata* (Gray, 1849) as the Gray\'s original name
for the snake was *Phytolopsis punctata*. It\'s little things like this
that drive me nuts, especially as the Catalogue of Life has no obvious,
quick means of fixing this (Wiki, anyone?).  
  
I was also interested in using the OCLC numbers a GUID for the book, but
there are several to choose from (including [two related to the Google
Book](http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/4208784/editions?editionsView=true)).
Unlike DOIs, a book may have multiple OCLCs (sigh). Still, it\'s a GUID,
and it\'s resolvable, so it\'s a start. Hence, one could link GUIDs for
the names published in this book to the book itself.


I've started to come across more taxonomic books in Google Books, such as Catalogue of the specimens of snakes in the collection of the British museum by John Edward Gray. Google books provides a nice widget for embedding views of books. There is tool for generating the Javascript code. Note that in Blogger (which I use to create this blog) you need to make sure that theJavascript occurs on a single line with no line breaks for it to work.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

What’s your poison? Venom composition of 26 deadly snakes

OCLC and Google books