6VH8 | pdb_00006vh8

NMR Solution Structure of Excelsatoxin A

• PDB DOI: https://doi.org/10.2210/pdb6VH8/pdb
• BMRB: 30711

• Classification: TOXIN
• Organism(s): Dendrocnide excelsa
• Mutation(s): No 
• Membrane Protein: Yes  OPM


• Deposited: 2020-01-09 Released: 2020-09-30 
• Deposition Author(s): Harvey, P.J., Durek, T., Craik, D.J.

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Experimental Data Snapshot

• Method: SOLUTION NMR
• Conformers Calculated: 100 
• Conformers Submitted: 20 
• Selection Criteria: structures with the lowest energy 

Literature

Neurotoxic peptides from the venom of the giant Australian stinging tree.

Gilding, E.K., Jami, S., Deuis, J.R., Israel, M.R., Harvey, P.J., Poth, A.G., Rehm, F.B.H., Stow, J.L., Robinson, S.D., Yap, K., Brown, D.L., Hamilton, B.R., Andersson, D., Craik, D.J., Vetter, I., Durek, T.

(2020) Sci Adv 6

• PubMed: 32938666 
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb8828
• Primary Citation Related Structures: 
  6VH8


• PubMed Abstract: 
  

  Stinging trees from Australasia produce remarkably persistent and painful stings upon contact of their stiff epidermal hairs, called trichomes, with mammalian skin. Dendrocnide -induced acute pain typically lasts for several hours, and intermittent painful flares can persist for days and weeks. Pharmacological activity has been attributed to small-molecule neurotransmitters and inflammatory mediators, but these compounds alone cannot explain the observed sensory effects. We show here that the venoms of Australian Dendrocnide species contain heretofore unknown pain-inducing peptides that potently activate mouse sensory neurons and delay inactivation of voltage-gated sodium channels. These neurotoxins localize specifically to the stinging hairs and are miniproteins of 4 kDa, whose 3D structure is stabilized in an inhibitory cystine knot motif, a characteristic shared with neurotoxins found in spider and cone snail venoms. Our results provide an intriguing example of inter-kingdom convergent evolution of animal and plant venoms with shared modes of delivery, molecular structure, and pharmacology.

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Organizational Affiliation: 
• Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, UK.
Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. [e-mail] [e-mail].
School of Pharmacy, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4102, Australia.

Biological Assembly 1  

Global Symmetry: Asymmetric - C1 
Global Stoichiometry: Monomer - A1 

Biological assembly 1 assigned by authors.

Macromolecule Content 

• Total Structure Weight: 3.89 kDa 
• Atom Count: 268 
• Modeled Residue Count: 36 
• Deposited Residue Count: 36 
• Unique protein chains: 1

Macromolecules

Entity ID: 1
Molecule	Chains	Sequence Length	Organism	Details	Image
Excelsatoxin A	A	36	Dendrocnide excelsa	Mutation(s): 0  Membrane Entity: Yes
UniProt
Find proteins for P0DQP3 (Dendrocnide excelsa) Explore P0DQP3  Go to UniProtKB:  P0DQP3

Experimental Data & Validation

Experimental Data

• Method: SOLUTION NMR
• Conformers Calculated: 100 
• Conformers Submitted: 20 
• Selection Criteria: structures with the lowest energy 

Structure Validation

Entry History 

Deposition Data

• Released Date: 2020-09-30 
Deposition Author(s): Harvey, P.J., Durek, T., Craik, D.J.

Revision History  

• Version 1.0: 2020-09-30
  Type: Initial release
  
• Version 1.1: 2023-06-14
  Changes: Database references, Other
• Version 1.2: 2024-11-20
  Changes: Data collection, Database references, Structure summary