Genomic organization of BmTXK beta and BmTXKS2, two scorpion venom peptides from Buthus martensii karsch

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