Apamin Apamin Apamin is an 18 amino acid peptide neurotoxin found in apitoxin (bee venom). Dry bee venom consists of 2–3% of apamin. Apamin selectively blocks SK channels, a type of Ca-activated K channel expressed in the central nervous system. Toxicity is caused by only a few amino acids, these are cysteine, lysine, arginine, arginine and histidine. These amino acids are involved in the binding of apamin to the Ca-activated K channel. Due to its specificity for SK channels, apamin is used as a drug in biomedical research to study the electrical properties of SK channels and their role in the
Evolution of snake venom model described above, in which genes in other body tissues are duplicated and then recruited to the venom gland before natural selection for toxicity. However, in 2014 a new model was proposed in which salivary protein genes are duplicated and then restricted to the venom gland. This model does away with the recruitment hypothesis and cites the homology between certain venom and body genes as unrelated in the linear fashion described in the traditional birth-and-death model. Gene duplication is not the only way that venom has become more diverse. There have been instances of new venom proteins generated by alternative