ANALYSIS OF VENOM VARIABILITY IN WOLF SPIDER Lycosa erythrognatha

Santos, D.M.(1), Mafra, R.A.(2), Pimenta, A.M.C.(1), Alvares, E.S.S.(3), De Maria, M.(3), Cruz, J.S.(2), Bemquerer, M.P.(4), De Lima, M.E.(1)

(1)Laboratório de Venenos e Toxinas Animais, (2)Laboratório de Membranas Excitáveis, (4)Laboratório de Físico-química de proteínas, Depto. de Bioquímica e Imunologia, (3)Laboratório de Aracnologia, Depto. de Zoologia. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil.

Wolf spiders from Lycosa genus, are very common in urban areas in Southeastern region of Brazil. Their venoms are poorly studied and knowing their active components can be a step forward to prospect new drugs candidates, antibiotics, biological insecticides or even molecular tools that can be used for biochemical studies involving receptor structure and function, ionic channels, proteolitics enzymes, and other functional classes. In this work, we initiate the biochemical characterization of the L. erythrognatha venom by using reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). Differences in some components concentrations related to gender, age and time extraction were found to be significant. Different profiles for male and female venoms were also observed in MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry analyses. Electrophysiological studies, using GH3 cells, carried out with soluble fraction of L. erythrognatha adult female venoms, demonstrated a shift to more negative potentials in sodium channels activation, similar to that one verified for scorpions -type toxins. This is the first time that this effect is described for Lycosa venoms.

Financial support: CAPES, CNPq, FAPEMIG and PRPq-UFMG.

CORRESPONDENCE TO:

DANIEL MOREIRA DOS SANTOS, Rua Ministro Bilac Pinto, 111, Belo Horizonte, MG, CEP: 31970300, Brasil, Email: danielms@icb.ufmg.br