Structural and functional characterisation of isolated puff adder (Bitis arietans) venom serine proteases

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  Structural and functional characterisation of isolated puff adder (Bitis arietans) venom serine proteases Abstract Serine proteases (SVSPs) are known to play a major role in the haemotoxic actions of viper venom, but compared with those from other medically important vipers, the serine proteases of puff adder venoms have not been extensively characterised. To address this, we isolated, identified and characterised the bioactivity of the serine proteases within the venom of the Nigerian puff adder, which we had previously shown to be especially rich in this class of toxin. Two distinct groups were identified, each with different protein substrate specificities. Both had similar molecular weights of 52-62 kDa, with 4-6 N-glycans, but one group consisted of trypsin-like acidic SVSPs and the other of non-trypsin-like basic SVSPs with a specificity for aliphatic amino acids at the P 1 position. Each acted differently on fibrinogen: the acidic SVSPs showed thrombin-like alpha/beta-fib...

Record of Lepidoptera and Hemiptera as a food resource of Acutisoma longipes Roewer, 1913 (Arachnida: Opiliones) in the Cerrado, Brazil

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Record of Lepidoptera and Hemiptera as a food resource of Acutisoma longipes Roewer, 1913 (Arachnida: Opiliones) in the Cerrado, Brazil

Abstract 

Harvestmen are nocturnal arachnids, commonly found in humid forests, with omnivorous feeding behavior. There are records of different taxa in the diet of these arthropods, but data is still scarce for many species, especially in Cerrado areas. Thus, the objective of the present work is to report Lepidoptera and Hemiptera in the diet of the harvestman Acutisoma longipes Roewer, 1913 (Arachnida: Opiliones), in Mata de Galeria in the Cerrado of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The records occurred randomly in the municipality of Luminárias, Minas Gerais, on October 10th and December 4th, 2023. In the first record, the species A. longipes was feeding on a moth (Lepidoptera: Erebidae). In the second record, the same species fed on a leafhopper, Mahanarva sp. (Hemiptera: Cercopidae). It was not possible to say whether these insects were preyed upon, usurped by other predators or found dead, but any of these hypotheses can be considered. This record contributes to increasing knowledge about the diet of harvestmen, especially in the Cerrado biome, where there is a need for more related studies.

Silva, Maria Luiza Simões, Igor Rodrigues de Castro, Felipe Barbosa Augusto de Freitas, Diogo Silva Vilela, Gabriel de Castro Jacques, and Marcos Magalhães de Souza. 2024. “Record of Lepidoptera and Hemiptera As a Food Resource of Acutisoma Longipes Roewer, 1913 (Arachnida; Opiliones) in the Cerrado, Brazil”. EntomoBrasilis 17 (June):e1082. https://doi.org/10.12741/ebrasilis.v17.e1082.