Comparison of venom constituents from four tiger snake (Notechis) subspecies

Venoms from Notechis scutatus scutatus, Notechis ater serventyi, Notechis ater humphreysi and Notechis ater ater were compared using gel filtration, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and western blotting. All venoms gave slightly different elution profiles on a Superose 12 gel filtration column. When examined by SDS-PAGE and western blotting, all venoms appeared to have notexin-like proteins except for N. a. serventyi. N. a. serventyi lacked proteins migrating in the notexin molecular weight range, showed no reactivity toward a monoclonal antibody that reacted strongly with notexin in western blot analysis, and had twice the LD50-value of the other three venoms.