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Marine Protein Toxins

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Handbook of Marine Natural Products

Abstract

Many marine animals produce protein toxins that are used for both predation and protection from predators. It is known that venomous stings by specific fish and jellyfish are sometimes fatal. For many years, detailed characterization of the causative toxins has been hampered by their instability. In recent years, various protein toxins have been successfully isolated and characterized from marine venomous animals. These studies have revealed that marine protein toxins exhibit unique structures and biological activities. A novel protein toxin family from the box jellyfish, the membrane-attack complex/perforin (MACPF) protein toxins isolated from the sea anemone, DNase II toxins from the starfish, and a dermatopontin family toxin from fire coral are representatives of some of these unique toxins. In this chapter, the most current studies on protein toxins isolated from marine venomous animals are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

The author thanks Okinawa Prefectural Institute of Health and Environment for the courtesy of the photographs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ocean Science, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, 4-5-7 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-8477, Japan

    Hiroshi Nagai

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  1. Hiroshi Nagai
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Correspondence to Hiroshi Nagai .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Facoltà di Farmacia, Dipto. Chimica delle Sostanze Naturali, Università di Napoli, Via Domenico Montesano 49, Napoli, 80131, Italy

    Ernesto Fattorusso

  2. Scripps Inst. Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, Gilman Drive 9500, La Jolla, 92093-0213, California, USA

    William H. Gerwick

  3. Facoltà di Farmacia, Dipto. Chimica delle Sostanze Naturali, Università di Napoli, Via Domenico Montesano 49, Napoli, 80131, Italy

    Orazio Taglialatela-Scafati

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© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

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Nagai, H. (2012). Marine Protein Toxins. In: Fattorusso, E., Gerwick, W., Taglialatela-Scafati, O. (eds) Handbook of Marine Natural Products. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3834-0_29

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