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Article

Isolation and Preliminary Characterization of Proteinaceous Toxins with Insecticidal and Antibacterial Activities from Black Widow Spider (L. tredecimguttatus) Eggs

by
Qian Lei
†,
Hai Yu
†,
Xiaozhen Peng
,
Shuai Yan
,
Jirong Wang
,
Yizhong Yan
and
Xianchun Wang
*
Key Laboratory of Protein Chemistry and Developmental Biology of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Toxins 2015, 7(3), 886-899; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins7030886
Submission received: 22 December 2014 / Revised: 12 February 2015 / Accepted: 4 March 2015 / Published: 16 March 2015
(This article belongs to the Section Animal Venoms)
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Abstract

The eggs of black widow spider (L. tredecimguttatus) have been demonstrated to be rich in toxic proteinaceous components. The study on such active components is of theoretical and practical importance. In the present work, using a combination of multiple biochemical and biological strategies, we isolated and characterized the proteinaceous components from the aqueous extract of the black widow spider eggs. After gel filtration of the egg extract, the resulting main protein and peptide peaks were further fractionated by ion exchange chromatography and reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography. Two proteinaceous components, named latroeggtoxin-III and latroeggtoxin-IV, respectively, were purified to homogeneity. Latroeggtoxin-III was demonstrated to have a molecular weight of about 36 kDa. Activity analysis indicated that latroeggtoxin-III exhibited neurotoxicity against cockroaches but had no obvious effect on mice, suggesting that it is an insect-specific toxin. Latroeggtoxin-IV, with a molecular weight of 3.6 kDa, was shown to be a broad-spectrum antibacterial peptide, showing inhibitory activity against all five species of bacteria tested, with the highest activity against Staphylococcus aureus. Finally, the implications of the proteinaceous toxins in egg protection and their potential applications were analyzed and discussed.
Keywords: black widow spider; egg; proteinaceous toxin; fractionation; characterization; L. tredecimguttatus; antibacterial; insecticidal black widow spider; egg; proteinaceous toxin; fractionation; characterization; L. tredecimguttatus; antibacterial; insecticidal

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MDPI and ACS Style

Lei, Q.; Yu, H.; Peng, X.; Yan, S.; Wang, J.; Yan, Y.; Wang, X. Isolation and Preliminary Characterization of Proteinaceous Toxins with Insecticidal and Antibacterial Activities from Black Widow Spider (L. tredecimguttatus) Eggs. Toxins 2015, 7, 886-899. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins7030886

AMA Style

Lei Q, Yu H, Peng X, Yan S, Wang J, Yan Y, Wang X. Isolation and Preliminary Characterization of Proteinaceous Toxins with Insecticidal and Antibacterial Activities from Black Widow Spider (L. tredecimguttatus) Eggs. Toxins. 2015; 7(3):886-899. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins7030886

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lei, Qian, Hai Yu, Xiaozhen Peng, Shuai Yan, Jirong Wang, Yizhong Yan, and Xianchun Wang. 2015. "Isolation and Preliminary Characterization of Proteinaceous Toxins with Insecticidal and Antibacterial Activities from Black Widow Spider (L. tredecimguttatus) Eggs" Toxins 7, no. 3: 886-899. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins7030886

APA Style

Lei, Q., Yu, H., Peng, X., Yan, S., Wang, J., Yan, Y., & Wang, X. (2015). Isolation and Preliminary Characterization of Proteinaceous Toxins with Insecticidal and Antibacterial Activities from Black Widow Spider (L. tredecimguttatus) Eggs. Toxins, 7(3), 886-899. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins7030886

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