TFTX: A Computational Tool for Predicting Subfamilies of Three-Finger Toxins from the Venom of Elapid Snakes

Venoms from elapidae snakes are rich sources of over 100 protein toxins and most of them have been grouped into six superfamilies. Of the six superfamilies, three-finger toxin (3FTx) family contains most toxic principles such as cardiotoxins and α-neurotoxins. The proteins belonging to these two members of 3FTx superfamily are highly similar in their primary, secondary and tertiary structures. Notwithstanding their extreme structural similarities, they are drastically differing from each other in their biological functions. Thus, authentic functional assays are prerequisites for unambiguously annotating these protein toxins and the assays demand highly pure protein samples, sound experimental knowledge and sophisticated instrumentations. In these backgrounds, we have developed a computational tool, TFTX, which identifies cardiotoxins and α-neurotoxins on the basis of their primary structures. The robustness of the tool has been validated using authentic sequences of cardiotoxins and α-neurotoxins reported in the literature. Moreover, the TFTX is powerful to differentiate cardiotoxins and α-neurotoxins of snake venoms from the three-finger proteins of various organisms that are not toxic in nature. The uniqueness of the TFTX has also been dealt through a comparative analysis of the tool with existing computational means such as ‘NTXpred server’, ‘SUPERFAMILY server’ and ‘phylogenetic methods’ for the structural classifications. The program is publicly available through the web server at http://feat.sastra.edu/TFTX.html