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

Posted by
  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...

A survey of Synaphosus Platnick & Shadab, 1980 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae) in Azerbaijan, including the description of a new species

Posted by

 



A survey of Synaphosus Platnick & Shadab, 1980 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae) in Azerbaijan, including the description of a new species

Abstract

A survey of ground spiders of the genus Synaphosus Platnick & Shadab, 1980 (Gnaphosidae) from Azerbaijan, including five species, is presented. Among them, S. nakhchivanicus sp. nov. is described based on a male specimen collected in the Julfa District. In addition, S. syntheticus (Chamberlin, 1924) is reported from the Caucasus for the first time.

Nuruyeva, T. V., Fomichev, A. A., Snegovaya, N. Y., Alekperov, I. K., Huseynzade, G. A., & Musayeva, Z. Y. (2026). A survey of <em>Synaphosus</em> Platnick & Shadab, 1980 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae) in Azerbaijan, including the description of a new species. Ecologica Montenegrina, 99, 82–88. https://doi.org/10.37828/em.2026.99.6