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Purification and characterisation of tick toxins

Dissertation (MSc (Agric))--University of Pretoria, 1983.

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Other Authors: Neitz, A.W.H. (Albert Walter Herman)
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2024
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author2 Neitz, A.W.H. (Albert Walter Herman)
author_browse Neitz, A.W.H. (Albert Walter Herman)
author_facet Neitz, A.W.H. (Albert Walter Herman)
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2024 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MSc (Agric))--University of Pretoria, 1983.
format Thesis
id oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/99516
institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:37:39.235Z
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provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2024
publishDateRange 2024
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publisherStr University of Pretoria
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source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/99516 Purification and characterisation of tick toxins Neitz, A.W.H. (Albert Walter Herman) Viljoen, Gerrit Johannes Purification Characterization Tick Toxins UCTD Dissertation (MSc (Agric))--University of Pretoria, 1983. Ectoparasites can serve as vectors of numerous disease agents i.e. they are involved in maintaining and transmitting for example viral and rickettsial organisms pathogenic to man and animals (Sl). An understanding of these diseases inevitably must involve a study of the vector, pathogen, possible toxins involved and the host. The present study was designed to investigate the origin and characteristics of the toxins. Tick eggs were selected as starting material since they are known to be toxic (S2) and they can be collected in fairly large numbers. Furthermore, these toxins may have a bearing on toxins associated with tick paralysis and tick-symbiont association. Rhipieephalus evertsi evertsi, Hyalomma trunaatum, Boophilus deaoloratus and Boophilus miaroplus were used to prepare crude egg extracts. Toxin purification procedures involved centrifugation, gel permeation chromatography and chrornatofocusing. They were shown to be pure by isoelectric focusing and SDS-PAGE. Protease inhibitory activity was analysed on pancreatic trypsin with N-benzoyl-D-L-arginine 4-nitroanilideHCl as substrate, and pancreatic chymotrypsin with N-succinyl-L-phenylalanine-p-nitroanilide as substrate. The toxins differed with respect to amino acid composition, isoelectric point, molecular mass and inhibitory action on trypsin and chymotrypsin. Molecular mass was determined with SOS-gradient polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and sedimentation equilibrium centrifugation and the isoelectric points with analytical isoelectric focusing. Some characteristics of the toxins are summarised in Table Sl. The relatively well studied organisms, Riakettsia prowazekii, R. typhi and R. aonorii were selected as test organisms. These studies were later extended to Cowdria ruminantium and organisms from ticks producing sweating sickness. The motivation was to investigate possible toxins produced by C. ruminantium and to investigate the possibility that organisms from sweating sickness producing ticks are involved as agents of the disease. The isolation of rickettsia-like organisms involved high and low speed centrifugation as well as Percell density gradient centrifugation. Electron microscopic studies of the organisms isolated from heartwater infected Amblyomma hebraeum ticks, showed morphological similarities to those found in the choroid plexus of an infected animal. The rickettsia-like organisms isolated from sweating sickness positive and negative H. truncatum ticks and eggs showed a similar distribution of organisms for both strains in Percell density gradients. The above results show that rickettsia-like organisms from ticks may be harvested in a pure, infective form and in large numbers. Biochemistry MSc (Agric) 2024-11-27T09:16:04Z 2024-11-27T09:16:04Z 21/12/02 1983 Dissertation http://hdl.handle.net/2263/99516 en © 2024 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle Purification
Characterization
Tick
Toxins
UCTD
Purification and characterisation of tick toxins
title Purification and characterisation of tick toxins
title_full Purification and characterisation of tick toxins
title_fullStr Purification and characterisation of tick toxins
title_full_unstemmed Purification and characterisation of tick toxins
title_short Purification and characterisation of tick toxins
title_sort purification and characterisation of tick toxins
topic Purification
Characterization
Tick
Toxins
UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/99516