Genetic diversity among different species of the genus Leiurus (Scorpiones: Buthidae) in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East

Alqahtani, Abdulaziz R.; Badry, Ahmed

doi:10.1016/j.sjbs.2020.08.048

Cited by 17 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Most likely, Mesobuthus records forming a continuous range from western Kazakhstan between 0.012 to 0.016, which is consistent with levels of within species haplotype diversity in other buthid scorpions (i.e. Pedroso et al [2013]; Coelho et al [2014]; Alqahtani & Badry [2020]).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 64%

The northernmost Palearctic scorpion

Poverennyi

Graham

Fet

2022

Arthsel

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Reserve. Molecular data indicate that the populations is M. bogdoensis (Birula, 1896). Material and methodsThe field collection was performed by the first author (N.P.). On 13 August 2021, 10 scorpion specimens were collected with the help of UV light at night on a slope of the Karagashta Ravine, 1 km from Aituar Village, Kuvandyk District, Orenburg Province, Russian Federation (51.1072°N, 57.6606°E), within the Aituar Steppe area of the Orenburg Nature Reserve. The specimens were found in dry grass-tussock stony steppe habitat (Fig. 2). DNA extraction, amplification, and sequencing of the COI gene for this population were also performed by the first author (N.P.) according to the methods published earlier [Poverennyi, Anikin, 2020a, b]. The new single Aituar COI sequence was deposited in GenBank under accession number OM905082. This sequence was added to 23 sequences belonging to five other congeneric species, which represented a subset of 98 sequences recently used for revision of genus Mesobuthus [Kovařík et al., 2022] (see Fig. 1 legend for details). The phylogenetic analysis of the combined dataset was performed by the second author (M.R.G.) The mitochondrial COI sequence data were aligned using MUSCLE [Edgar, 2004] in the AliView 1.7.1 software package [Larsson, 2014] using default parameters. Successful alignment of the sequences was confirmed visually and ends were trimmed manually in AliView. Phylogenetic relationships were estimated by implementing the criteria of Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian Inference (BI). In the ML analysis, IQTREE version 1.6.6 [Nguyen et al., 2015] was used, allowing the software to select optimum substitution models with ModelFinder [Kalyaanamoorthy et al., 2017]. Node support was calculated ABSTRACT. This note addresses the northernmost (above 51°N) Palearctic scorpion population of the Aituar Steppe in the Orenburg Nature Reserve, Russia. According to our original COI mtDNA analysis, this population is Mesobuthus bogdoensis (Birula, 1896) (Buthidae).

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 64%

The northernmost Palearctic scorpion

Poverennyi

Graham

Fet

2022

Arthsel

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“…Scorpions of the genus Leiurus (“deathstalker”) are extremely dangerous [ 16 ], but their venom can be used in medicine [ 17 – 19 ]. Although the genus Leiurus for a long time was considered monotypic, Lowe et al have recently described a few new species, including Leiurus macroctenus [ 20 ], which can be distinguished from another species by morphometric and morphological characters [ 21 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Activity of Metalloproteases and Serine Proteases in Various Organs after Leiurus macroctenus Envenomation

Gunas

Maievskyi

Raksha

et al. 2023

Journal of Toxicology

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Background. Scorpion stings may be life-threatening since their venoms are comprised of a wide range of toxins and other bioactive molecules, such as enzymes. At the same time, scorpion envenomation may increase matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) levels, which enhance proteolytic tissue destruction by venom. However, investigations on the impact of many scorpions’ venoms, such as those of Leiurus macroctenus, on tissue proteolytic activity and MMP levels have not yet been conducted. Methods and Results. The present study aimed to examine the total proteolysis levels in various organs after Leiurus macroctenus envenomation and evaluate the metalloproteases and serine proteases’ contributions to the total proteolytic activity. Changes in MMPs and TIMP-1 levels were tested as well. Envenomation led to a significant increase in proteolytic activity levels in all assessed organs, mostly in the heart (by 3.34 times) and lungs (by 2.25 times). Conclusions. Since EDTA presence showed a noticeable decrease in total proteolytic activity level, metalloproteases appeared to play a prominent role in total proteolytic activity. At the same time, MMPs and TIMP-1 levels were increased in all assessed organs, suggesting that Leiurus macroctenus envenomation causes systemic envenomation, which may induce multiple organ abnormalities, mostly because of the uncontrolled metalloprotease activity.

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“…Scorpions belong to the Leiurus genus (also known as “deathstalker”) are well known because of their dangerous venom [17, 18] , at the same time their venom components possess biomedical properties, attracting scientists’ attention [3, 4, 12, 38] . Leiurus macroctenus is a recently identified species [20] , that differ from other Leiurus species by morphological and morphometric parameters [5] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%