Venom gland Transcriptomic analysis of Iranian yellow scorpion Odontobuthus doriae revealed some new findings by medical purposes

Introduction: Scorpion venom contains mixture of biologic molecules including selective toxins with medical capability. Odonthubuthus doriae (O.doriae) belonged to Buthidae family of scorpions and gained more interest among Iranian dangerous scorpion since 2005. The envenomation of this scorpion causes usually neurological signs because of existence of toxins affecting on ion channels.Material & Methods: total RNA was isolated from yellow Iranian scorpion glands. A cDNA library was achieved by synthesize and insertion of dscDNA into special vectors and subsequent transformation to chemical competent E. coli as host. Library was screened by culturing of the liquid library on LB-agar plates. analysis of positive clones was performed by plasmid extraction and sequencing of inserts. Finally, sequences have been analyzed and characterized by bioinformatics software each.Results: Analysis showed that toxins (42% of ESTs) had more venom transcripts than other venom components (antimicrobial peptide (10%), cell proteins (11%) and venom peptide (13%)) that may have capacity for medical used. Two EST didn’t have any similarity by known scorpion peptides and may be new. Conclusion: For the first time; we report a comprehensive study of an Iranian scorpion with interesting and novel findings and characterized a new putative sodium channel modifier and a new iron transporter in scorpions by some bioinformatics software, and then predicted their structures and functions.

Keywords:

Transcriptome analysis , cDNA library , Venom gland , Iranian scorpion , Odontobuthus doriae