Alciporin, a pore-forming protein as complementary defense mechanism in Millepora alcicornis

Millepora alcicornis (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa), known as fire coral, is a tropical species settled in marine ecosystems of the Canary Islands last years. This hydrocoral biosynthesizes toxins involved chemical defense and prey capture mechanisms. Toxicological studies have shown that venom contained nematocysts mainly composed thermolabile proteins display hemolytic activity, causing skin irritation burn-like lesions upon contact. As continuation previous study, chromatographic fractionation aqueous extracts M. has confirmed coexistence different nature responsible for effects red blood cells (RBCs) through two Aside from already described phospholipase A2 (PLA2) this work presence alciporin, pore-forming protein (PFP), been established first time . The sequence analysis revealed alciporin fit an actinoporin with high homology to stichotoxins. were analyzed sphingomyelin was identified its biological target. Also, evolution damage produced at nanoscale studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM).