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Updated: Sep 17, 2026
Extraction of Venom and Venom Gland Microdissections from Spiders for Proteomic and Transcriptomic Analyses
Published on: November 3, 2014
Toxicity evolution of Vipera aspis aspis venom: identification and molecular modeling of a novel phospholipase A(2)
Virginie Jan1, R C Maroun, Annie Robbe-Vincent
1Unité des Venins, Institut Pasteur, 25 rue du Dr Roux, 75724 Cedex 15, Paris, France. vjan@pasteur.fr
Abstract:
We report the simultaneous presence of two phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)) neurotoxins in the venom of Vipera aspis aspis, the first such observation. One is monomeric and identical to ammodytoxin B of Vipera ammodytes ammodytes. Its presence may result from gene flux after interbreeding between V. aspis aspis and V. ammodytes ammodytes. The second, a novel heterodimer named vaspin, is very similar to vipoxin of Vipera ammodytes meridionalis and to PLA(2)-I of Vipera aspis zinnikeri. It may result from expression of preexisting genes, the acidic subunit evolving from an ancestor common to ammodytin I2 from V. ammodytes ammodytes, which we also found in V. aspis aspis.
