Tarichatoxin—Tetrodotoxin: A Potent Neurotoxin

Abstract

In literature and alchemy the salamander is a fabled creature. Salamanders have long been known to be toxic animals, the poisons they produce usually being associated with secretions of specialized glands or of the skin itself. An extraordinarily powerful neurotoxin, called tarichatoxin, has recently been isolated in crystalline form from the eggs of various species of western American newts of the genus Taricha. This toxin, present in adult newts as well as in newt eggs and embryos, is very different chemically and pharmacologically from other known salamander toxins. This makes all the more remarkable the finding, in recent work, that tarichatoxin is identical to a toxin known as tetrodotoxin which occurs in the Japanese Fugu or puffer fish. The substance appears to occur only in one family of Amphibia (the Salamandridae) and one suborder of fishes (the Tetraodontoidae). This extremely limited distribution is a remarkable biogenetic finding.Here we discuss the course of the investigations which led to the isolation of the toxin from the California newt, the history of tetrodotoxin, the evidence, both physical and physiological, which points to the conclusion that tarichatoxin and tetrodotoxin are one and the same substance, and the deductions which can be made concerning the chemical structure of the toxin. Tarichatoxin Discovery and history. In the early 1930's Victor C. Twitty, an experimental embryologist, came to Stanford University from Yale. At New Haven he had worked with the eastern salamander, Ambystoma punctatum, and at 1100 Dr. Mosher is professor of chemistry, Dr. Fuhrman is professor of experimental medicine, and Drs. Buchwald and Fischer are research associates in chemistry at

Instrumental Analysis of Tetrodotoxin

“…TTX was long believed to be present only in the pufferfish. In 1964, Mosher et al detected TTX in California newt Taricha torosa, which was the first TTX-containing organism other than pufferfish [14]. Since then, the distribution of TTX has spread to animals other than pufferfish.…”

The evolutionary origins of beneficial alleles during the repeated adaptation of garter snakes to deadly prey

“…Garter snakes (Thamnophis) appear to have independently evolved resistance to tetrodotoxin (TTX) possessed by their newt prey (Taricha). Newts of the genus Taricha possess the neurotoxin TTX (16,17), which acts as a powerful chemical defense against virtually any predator (18). TTX binds to voltage-gated sodium channels in nerves and muscles, blocking the movement of sodium ions (Na ϩ ) across the cell membrane and halting the propagation of action potentials that control nerve impulses (19,20).…”

Tetrodotoxin – Distribution and Accumulation in Aquatic Organisms, and Cases of Human Intoxication

“…Since Mosher et al detected TTX in the eggs of the California newt Taricha torosa in 1964 [43], however, TTX has been detected in a wide variety of animals, as shown in Table 2 [9]. * Maximal toxicity is shown by the same symbols as in Table 1.…”