Pumiliotoxins

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Pumiliotoxin A.
Pumiliotoxin B
Pumiliotoxin C

Pumiliotoxins ( Latin pumilio , dwarf) are among the toxic, fat - soluble alkaloids . The isolation from particularly small frogs gave it its name.

Producers

Scale ants

Scale ants such as the genera Brachymyrmex and Paratrechina produce pumiliotoxins in their venom glands as an effective weapon.

Horn mites

Some types of horn mite and other mites can produce toxic alkaloids, particularly pumiliotoxins.

Sequestration

Frogs are unable to synthesize toxins . You have to sequester them from other organisms .

Poison dart frogs

Strawberry frogs ( Oophaga pumilio ) of the poison dart frogs family , native to the forests of Panama , prefer to feed on scale ants of the genera Brachymyrmex and Paratrechina . Their toxins accumulate in their skin. 232 poisonous alkaloids have been identified in the skin of strawberry frogs, including pumiliotoxins and allopumiliotoxins ( aPTX ) in particular .

Hundreds of different alkaloids, some of them extremely poisonous, have been discovered in other members of this family, which can also be fatal to humans. These come from food, e.g. B. Pumiliotoxins from horn mites. The frogs of the tree climber, for example, present toxins from allopumiliotoxins.

Monte Iberia frogs ( Eleutherodactylus iberia ) for size comparison on a human hand
Strawberry Frog ( Dendrobates pumilio )

Eleutherodactylidae

Pumiliotoxins have also been detected in the skin of the Monte Iberia frog ( Eleutherodactylus iberia ) from the Eleutherodactylidae family . The Monte Iberia frogs have developed the alkaloid storage in the skin in the course of evolution independently of other frog groups. They ingest the toxins by consuming mostly alkaloid-containing horn mites or other mites and ants.

literature

  • G. Habermehl: Poison animals and their weapons . 2nd edition, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg 1983, 150 pp.
  • Habermehl, Hammann, Krebs, Ternes: Natural product chemistry . 3rd edition, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg 2008.

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Pons
  2. ^ A b Staudt, Konrad, et al .: Foraging behavior and territoriality of the strawberry poison frog (Oophaga pumilio) in dependence of the presence of ants. Amphibia-Reptilia, Volume 31, No. 2, 2010, pp. 217-227, doi : 10.1163 / 156853810791069100 .
  3. ↑ Ariel Rodríguez, Dennis Poth, Stefan Schulz, Miguel Vences: Discovery of skin alkaloids in a miniaturized eleutherodactylid frog from Cuba. Biology Letters, Royal Society Publishing, online publication on November 3, 2010, doi : 10.1098 / rsbl.2010.0844 .
  4. ↑ Ralph A. Saporito et al .: Spatial and temporal patterns of alkaloid variation in the poison frog Oophaga pumilio in Costa Rica and Panama over 30 years. Toxicon, Vol. 50, No. 6, 2007, pp. 757-778.