Protein Identification of Venoms of the African Spitting Cobras,Naja mossambicaandNaja nigricincta nigricincta

Cobra snakes, includingNaja mossambicaandNaja nigricincta nigricincta,are one of the major groups of snakes responsible for snakebites in southern Africa, producing significant cytotoxicity and tissue damage. The venom ofN. mossambicahas been briefly characterised, but that ofN. n. nigricinctais not reported. The current study identifies the venom proteins ofN. mossambicaandN. n. nigricincta. This is achieved using sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel eletrophroresis (PAGE), followed by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Most of the proteins were less than 17 kDa in both snakes.N. mossambicawas found to have 75 proteins in total (from 16 protein families), whereasN.n. nigricinctahad 73 (from 16 protein families). Of these identified proteins, 57 were common in both snakes. The proteins identified belonged to various families, including the three-finger toxins (3FTx), Cysteine-rich secretory proteins (CRiSP), Phospholipase A2 (PLA(2)) and Venom metalloproteinase M12B (SVMP). The current study contributes to the profile knowledge of snake venom compositions, which is of fundamental value in understanding the proteins that play a major role in envenomation.