Scorpion venoms have been studied for decades, leading to the identification of hundreds of different toxins with medical and pharmacological implications. However, little emphasis has been given to the description of these arthropods from cellular and evolutionary perspectives. In this report, we describe a transcriptomic analysis of the Mexican scorpion Centruroides noxius Hoffmann, performed...

The episodic nature of natural selection and the accumulation of extreme sequence divergence in venom-encoding genes over long periods of evolutionary time can obscure the signature of positive Darwinian selection. Recognition of the true biocomplexity is further hampered by the limited taxon selection, with easy to obtain or medically important species typically being the subject of intense ve...

Death due to scorpion envenoming syndrome is a common event in many of the tropical and nontropical counties. Initial transient hypertension is commonly observed in scorpion sting victims. Scorpion envenoming causes autonomic storm resulting in initial transient hypertension followed by hypotension, cold clammy skin, hypothermia, cardiovascular disturbances, acute myocarditis, sarcolemmal defec...

Scorpions are generalist predators, capturing a great variety of arthropods including even small vertebrates (Polis, 1990), however, they are also subject to predation, especially by vertebrates such as amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals (Polis et al., 1981; McCormick and Polis, 1990). Regarding the invertebrates, there are reports of predation by coleopterans, chilopods, solpugids, others...

background: scorpion sting envenomation generally causes treatable local and systemic effects; however, in rare cases, the victims might experience sequels in end organs such as central nervous system. in the present paper, a case of relatively self-limiting demyelinating polyneuropathy following a butidae sting is presented and the possible mechanisms are discussed.  case presentation: a 19-ye...

BACKGROUND Clinically significant scorpion envenomation by Centruroides sculpturatus produces a dramatic neuromotor syndrome and respiratory insufficiency that often necessitate intensive supportive care. We hypothesized that a scorpion-specific F(ab')(2) antivenom would promptly resolve clinical symptoms in children with this syndrome. METHODS In a randomized, double-blind study, the efficac...

The scorpion Iurus dufoureius asiaticus (Birula 1903) which is the largest scorpion in Europe and Turkey belongs to the family Iuridae and is endemic in Turkey. No data has been found about the venom components of I. d. asiaticus. In this study, the venom extract ob-tained from I. d. asiaticus specimens collected from Aydin were analyzed using the Tris tricine SDS-PAGE method. A total of 28 pro...