**Acknowledgements**

The authors thank the Brazilian founding agencies FAPESP and CNPq, INCTTOX program. L.C.C.-C. had a Post-Doctoral fellowship from CAT-CEPID/FAPESP.

## **Author details**

Ana Marisa Chudzinski-Tavassi, Miryam Paola Alvarez-Flores, Linda Christian Carrijo-Carvalho and Maria Esther Ricci-Silva

\*Address all correspondence to: amchudzinski@butantan.gov.br; miryam\_paolaa@hot‐ mail.com

Laboratory of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Butantan Institute, São Paulo, Brazil

## **References**


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Integrating transcriptomic, proteomic and microarray analysis will provide a wealth of valuable information about venom composition. Molecular cloning and expression of re‐ combinant toxins from *L. obliqua* opens new perspectives in the identification and characteri‐ zation of macromolecular fine structure of toxins and its implications for toxic activity as well as new action mechanisms and target cell binding that should be an area of rapid development. The next several years will likely see some very significant advances in this field and, in the future, those approaches will permit the identification of molecular mechanisms at a new level.

An Integrated View of the Molecular Recognition and Toxinology - From Analytical Procedures to Biomedical

The authors thank the Brazilian founding agencies FAPESP and CNPq, INCTTOX program.

\*Address all correspondence to: amchudzinski@butantan.gov.br; miryam\_paolaa@hot‐

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**Chapter 8**

**Molecular Pharmacology and Toxinology of Venom**

In the last decades, poisonous animals have gained notoriety since their venoms (secreted or injected) contain several of potentially useful bioactive substances (polypeptide toxins), which are mostly codified by a single gene or, in the case of venom organic compounds, by a given enzymatic route presented in a specialized tissue where the biosynthesis occur – the venom

In this context, in the age of genomic sciences, sequencing the entire genome or portion of it, can be thought as the straightforward step to understand a given venom composition. Particularly because, in many cases, the venom is produced in so small quantities, requiring great challenge (natural and bureaucratic) to obtain biological material for its investigation or the necessity of sacrifice the animal to get samples for analysis by conventional biochemical methods. Genome sequencing allows us the identification of mRNAs, as well as prediction of protein structure and function. In addition, the construction of cDNA libraries is useful to clone, catalog and identify genes, and subsequently express the proteins of interest from these libraries. By this approach, we can have adequate amounts of polypeptide toxins for functional

According to [1], venoms' complexity in terms of peptide and protein contents, together with the number of venomous species indicate that only a small proportion (less than 1%) of the all bioactive molecules has been identified and characterized to date, and little is known about the genomic background of the venomous organisms. Consequently, if we take into account that nature, operated by evolutionary processes, is the most efficient source of new functional molecules and drug candidates, the study of all species of venomous animals, including small

> © 2013 Torres et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

© 2013 Torres et al.; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

analysis and application, by which otherwise would be difficult to isolate.

**from Ants**

A.F.C. Torres, Y.P. Quinet, A. Havt, G. Rádis-Baptista and A.M.C. Martins

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/53539

**1. Introduction**

gland.

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

