Premium
Matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry and high‐performance liquid chromatography study of quantitative and qualitative variation in tarantula spider venoms
Author(s) -
Escoubas Pierre,
Corzo Gerardo,
Whiteley Brian J.,
Célérier MarieLouise,
Nakajima Terumi
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.595
Subject(s) - venom , chromatography , chemistry , spider , mass spectrometry , high performance liquid chromatography , matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization , zoology , biology , desorption , biochemistry , organic chemistry , adsorption
Animal venoms are important sources of novel pharmacological tools, useful in biochemical characterization of their receptors. Venom quality control, batch‐to‐batch homogeneity and high reproducibility of venom fractionation and toxin purification are crucial issues for biochemical and pharmacological studies. To address these issues, a study of the variability of tarantula spider venom samples was undertaken. Venom profiles of samples collected from individuals of different age and sex, and from sibling spiders of the same species, were generated by high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (MALDI‐TOFMS) and analyzed to assess venom variability and method accuracy. Sex‐linked venom variation was studied on eight species. Clear qualitative differences were observed for six out of eight species, as well as quantitative differences. Age‐related variation studied in Poecilotheria rufilata showed essentially age‐related quantitative differences between adults of both sexes and immature juveniles. The venoms of nine siblings and three wild‐collected Pterinochilus murinus were studied for individual variation, showing only very minor quantitative differences. On the same samples, the quality of MALDI‐TOFMS venom fingerprinting was demonstrated to be highly reproducible. Our results show that tarantula venom peptide fingerprinting is a highly reliable identification method, that pooled batches of venom from several animals can be used for venom purification, that venom composition does not appear to be qualitatively related to ontogenesis in the spiders studied, and that qualitative sex‐linked variation occurs across most species and may be important in activity studies. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.