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 eggs, meaning that the snake had no use for its venom. This has led biologists to suggest that if venom is not used by a species, it is rapidly lost. Venom atrophication has also occurred following the evolution of constriction as a method of prey capture that does not require venom. Constriction is hypothesized to have evolved independently in several lineages. North American ‘rat snakes’ such as the Corn snake "Pantherophis guttatus" use constriction to trap and kill their rodent prey, and do not possess functional venom. A similar process has occurred in the African colubrid lineage Lamprophiidae, such as