The molecular cloning of a phospholipase A2 from Bothrops jararacussu snake venom: evolution of venom group II phospholipase A2's may imply gene duplications.

The sequence coding for a snake venom phospholipase A2 (PLA2), BJUPLA2, has been cloned from a Bothrops jararacussu venom gland cDNA library. The cDNA sequence predicts a precursor containing a 16-residue signal peptide followed by a molecule of 122 amino acid residues with a strong sequence similarity to group II snake venom PLA2's. A striking feature of the cDNA is the high sequence conservation of the 5' and 3' untranslated regions in cDNAs coding for PLA2's from a number of viper species. The greatest sequence variation was observed between the regions coding for the mature proteins, with most substitutions occurring in nonsynonymous sites. The phylogenetic tree constructed by alignment of the amino acid sequence of BJUPLA2 with group II PLA2's in general groups them according to current taxonomical divisions and/or functional activity. It also suggests that gene duplications may have occurred at a number of different points during the evolution of snake venom group II PLA2's.