Toxins produced by arthropod parasites: salivary gland proteins of human body lice and venom proteins of Chelonine wasps
1996
Jones, D. | Wache, S. | Chhokar, V.
A review is presented of our ongoing research projects on the protein components of the saliva of human body lice and of the non-paralyzing venom of wasps in the subfamily Cheloninae. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacryamide gel electrophoretic analysis of lice salivary gland proteins showed a predominance of high and intermediate mol. wt proteins. Immunoblotting with a low titer polyclonal antiserum to lice salivary proteins indicated that some, but not all, of the predominant high mol. wt salivary gland proteins are injected into the host during feeding. The venom of a Chelonus sp. wasp contains a chitinase, and a 33,000 mol. wt protein with a primary structure composed mostly of a series of 12 tandem repeats of a 14-residue sequence. The N-terminus of this protein and its homologs in a related species of Ascogaster share a conserved adjacent pair of acidic residues. Epitope mapping/immunoprecipitation experiments now in progress will provide information on which linear motifs are on the surface of the protein, and will thereby provide information on the tertiary structure of the protein.
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