Meeting February 21: Dr. Barbara Murdoch, ECSU Diverse microbiota in the venom of two scorpion species

The venom of venomous organisms has long intrigued researchers regarding its potential for clinically relevant natural products. A newly emerging field, venom-microbiomics, seeks to study venom-associated microbes. Although microbes have been found in the venom of a variety of organisms, including snakes, spiders, insects, fish, etc., there have been no reports of bacteria in scorpion venom. In fact, the prevailing thought is that scorpion venom is sterile - devoid of bacteria. Finding preliminary evidence of bacteria in scorpion venom, we conducted a larger study using Next Generation sequencing and bioinformatic analyses to determine the diversity of bacteria in two scorpion species, Anuroctonus phaiodactylus and Paruroctonus becki.