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I want to know the chemical composition for the venom of the Pacific man o' war jelly fish, common throughout the summer on Australia's east coast.

2006-08-08 06:15:00 · 2 answers · asked by baz 2 in Science & Mathematics Medicine

2 answers

The Portuguese man-o-war, Physalia physalis, inflicts extreme pain and causes several physiological effects, including paralysis and possible respiratory failure resulting in death, although rare in humans. Its venom is also a protein, but it consists of large amounts of glutamic acid, phopholipase A, and phospholipase B; and, it is a neurotoxin with a possible direct myotoxic effect (Muscatine and Lenhoff 156)
Neurotoxin attacks the signalling mechanisms or the nerve structure itself.
Myotoxic means that it attacks and degrades muscle tissue.
Glutamic acid is an acidified amino acid, phopholipase A and B are enzymes that cleave fatty acid residues. Hope this helps.

2006-08-08 06:54:55 · answer #1 · answered by Allasse 5 · 0 0

far as i know i couldnt tell you

2006-08-08 06:19:08 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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