Genomic organization of BmTXKbeta and BmTXKS2, two scorpion venom peptides from Buthus martensii Karsch.

To elucidate genomic organization of BmTXKbeta and BmTXKS2, two scorpion venom peptides from Chinese scorpion Buthus martensii Karsch(BmK) were first isolated and their genomic regions characterized using the PCR method. Analysis of nucleotide sequence shows that there exists different intron location in the venom genes. The region encoding mature peptide of BmTXKbeta is disrupted by an intron with 886 bp, whereas the intron of BmTXKS2 is located within its propeptide coding region, which is different from other scorpion toxin genes with their introns within the signal peptide coding region.