| Australian funnel-web spiders are relatively large primitive hunting spiders. Male Atrax robustus spiders have been responsible for a number of human deaths. Venom was collected from the species Hadronyche infensa (Hickman) [female], H. formidabilis [male and female], H. versuta [female], and A. robustus (Cambridge) [male] and was fractionated by high performance liquid chromatography. This resulted in the isolation and purification of a homologous series of 7 insecticidal peptides of relatively low molecular mass (approximately 4kDa). The amino acid sequences of these toxins consisted of 36 or 37 amino acids and were named atracotoxins. For the major bioassay of these toxins, we used the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner), due to the great... |
