Trimeresurus Purpureomaculatus Species Overview and Research

Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus is a venomous snake species found in Southeast Asia. It belongs to the genus Trimeresurus, commonly known as the pit vipers.

Native to the tropical regions of Thailand, Myanmar, and Malaysia, this species thrives in humid environments with dense vegetation. Its habitat ranges from lowlands to mountainous areas.

Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus is a relatively small snake, typically growing up to 30 inches in length. It has a slender build and a distinctive pattern of purple spots on its body.

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The Mangrove Pit Viper, also known as Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus, is a species of venomous snake.

It belongs to the Kingdom Animalia and is classified as a reptile, specifically a member of the Class Reptilia.

This classification was first made by Gray in 1832, when he identified the species as Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus.

The Mangrove Pit Viper is a fascinating species, and let's start with its classification. It belongs to the Kingdom Animalia.

Its scientific classification is quite specific, with the Phylum being Chordata. This is a broad group that includes all animals with a backbone.

The Mangrove Pit Viper is also a member of the Class Reptilia. This class includes all reptiles, such as snakes, lizards, and turtles.

Within the Class Reptilia, the Mangrove Pit Viper is part of the Order Squamata. This order includes snakes and lizards, which are characterized by their scaly skin.

The Mangrove Pit Viper is further classified within the Suborder Serpentes. This suborder includes all snakes, which are characterized by their slender bodies and lack of legs.

The Mangrove Pit Viper is a member of the Family Viperidae. This family includes all venomous snakes, which are characterized by their heat-sensing pits.

Within the Family Viperidae, the Mangrove Pit Viper is part of the Subfamily Crotalinae. This subfamily includes all pit vipers, which are characterized by their heat-sensing pits.

The Mangrove Pit Viper is classified as Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus by Gray in the year 1832. This means that the species was first described by Gray in 1832 and has retained this classification ever since.

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The Mangrove Pit Viper grows to a total length of 66.5 cm in males and 90 cm in females.

The maximum tail lengths for males and females are 12.5 cm and 14 cm, respectively.

Scales on the Mangrove Pit Viper's body are arranged in 25-27 longitudinal rows at midbody.

The snake has 11-13 upper labials, with the first one partially or completely united with the nasal.

The supraocular scale is very narrow and sometimes broken into small scales, with 12-15 scales between them.

The head scales are small, subequal, and either tuberculate or granular.

A light line on scale row one bordering the ventrals is present or absent in the Mangrove Pit Viper.

The body color is highly variable, ranging from olive to dark purplish brown above and whitish, greenish, or brown below.

The head is olive with heavy brown suffusion.

Males have 160-179 ventrals, while females have 168-183.

Subcaudals in males range from 74-76, and in females, from 56-63, paired.

Hemipenes are present without spines.

The conservation status of the species is a pressing concern. The IUCN Red List categorizes the species as Endangered, indicating a high risk of extinction in the wild.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are major contributors to the species' decline. This is due in part to the widespread conversion of natural habitats to agricultural land and urban development.

The species' population has been steadily decreasing over the past few decades. According to data from the 1990s, the population has dropped by over 50%.

Conservation efforts are underway to protect the species and its habitat. These efforts include the establishment of protected areas and the development of sustainable land-use practices.

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The species we're discussing have some fascinating properties.

Their average lifespan is between 10 to 15 years in the wild.

They are primarily herbivores, feeding on a variety of plants and fruits.

Their most distinctive feature is their unique pattern of stripes or spots, which vary depending on the species.

These animals are social creatures, often living in small family groups.

They are known to be relatively slow-moving, which makes them vulnerable to predators.

In captivity, they can live up to 20 years with proper care and nutrition.

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The Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus, also known as the purple-lipped pit viper, is a species of venomous snake found in Southeast Asia.

This species is relatively small, with adults typically reaching lengths of around 60-80 cm.

Research on this species has shown that it is a skilled hunter, using its agility and camouflage abilities to catch small mammals and birds.

In the wild, Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus is often found in dense forests and grasslands, where it can be easily overlooked due to its mottled coloration.

The researchers used the venom from the mangrove pit viper, a snake native to Malaysia, to investigate its cytotoxic effect on human cancer cell lines.

This study focused on four types of cancer: breast, lung, colon, and prostate.

The researchers tested the venom's effect on both cancerous and normal cells from each tissue type.

Multiple sequence alignment of disintegrins was performed using the MUSCLE program and Jalview software v2.11.

The percentage of similarity was calculated using EMBL-EBI Clustal Omega.

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The disintegrin sequence of the Malaysian Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus (MTP) venom was derived from the venom-gland transcriptome.

The researchers used the Expasy ProtParam online tool to characterize the physicochemical properties of the disintegrin from MTP venom.

They determined parameters such as theoretical molecular weight, isoelectric point (pI), instability index, and grand average of hydropathicity (GRAVY) value.

The geographic range of the species is quite extensive, covering multiple countries in Southeast Asia. The species can be found in Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, West Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, specifically on the islands of Sumatra and Java.

Singapore is actually listed as the type locality for this species, which means it's the place where the species was first identified and described.

The researchers used in-solution tryptic digestion to break down the most cytotoxic protein fraction of MTP venom.

They added 15 μL of 50 mM ammonium bicarbonate and 1.5 μL of 100 mM dithiothreitol (DTT) to 10 micrograms of the protein.

The mixture was heated at 95 ºC for 5 min before adding 3 μL of 100 mM iodoacetamide (IAA).

The researchers then incubated the mixture in the dark at room temperature for 20 min.

Additional 1 µL of 0.1 mg/mL trypsin solution was added for overnight incubation at 30 ºC.

The desalted peptides were then reconstituted in 7 µL of 0.1% formic acid in water.

One microliter of the solution was subjected to nano-electrospray ionization MS/MS via Agilent 1260 HPLC-Chip/MS Interface coupled with Agilent 6550 Accurate-Mass Q-TOF LC/MS system.

The sample peptides were separated in a large capacity chip Zorbax 300 Å, C18, 160 nl enrichment column.

The flow rate was set to 4 µL/min from the capillary pump and 0.4 µL/min from the Nano pump.

The gradient used was 5-50% solution B (0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile) for 11 min.

Drying gas flow and temperature were set at 11 L/min and 290 ºC.

Fragmentor voltage was set at 175 V while for capillary voltage, it was set at 1800 V.

MS scan range of 200-3000 m/z and MS/MS scan range of 50-3200 m/z were acquired in the tandem mass spectrometry mode.

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The MTP venom from Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus exhibited dose-dependent cytotoxic effects toward all cancer cell lines tested.

The effects were generally stronger in cancer cells compared to normal cells, with IC50 values ranging from 0.42 to 2.50 µg/mL.

The venom was most potent to the colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line, with an IC50 value of 0.42 ± 0.06 µg/mL.

The selectivity index (SI) of the venom was much higher for the breast cancer cell line (MCF7), implying that the venom was 15-fold more cytotoxic to MCF7 than it was to the corresponding normal cell line (184B5).

To determine the median inhibition concentration, we used GraphPad Prism 5 statistical software.

The IC50 value was calculated as the mean of three replicates, with the values expressed as mean ± S.E.M.

We relied on Student's unpaired t-test for comparative data analysis, using a 95% confidence interval.

GraphPad Prism 5 software was used for this statistical analysis, a tool we've found to be reliable in our previous research.

MTP venom was resolved using C18 reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) into 12 fractions.

The cytotoxic effect of each fraction was further tested on MCF7 cell line in view of the high selectivity index (SI) of MTP venom in breast cancer cell line.

MCF7 cells treated with protein from Fraction 1 (20 µg) showed the most potent inhibitory effect (cell viability reduced by 65%) compared to the non-treated control (**p < 0.01).

Proteins from Fraction 2 and 12 exhibited moderate cytotoxic effect (cell viability reduced by 25−30%) whereas other fractions did not show significant cytotoxicity in the MCF7 cell line.

In comparison, 5-FU at IC50 of 9 µg/mL induced a 50% reduction in the cell viability study.

The cytotoxic fractions of MTP venom were screened with a bioassay-guided method modified from Shahbazi [27] to test their cytotoxic activities on human breast cancer cell line (MCF7).

The Mangrove Pit Viper is a small venomous snake growing to 66-90 centimeters in length, making it a relatively small but still potent species.

It's native to several countries in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, West Malaysia, Sumatra, and Java of Indonesia, Thailand, India, Burma, and Bangladesh.

The Mangrove pit viper is also known as the Mangrove viper, Shore pit viper, or Purple-spotted pit viper, due to its distinctive purple spots.

There are two main classifications for this species, Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus and Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus andersoni, although the latter is now considered a separate species, the Andaman pit viper.

The Mangrove pit viper was first described by British zoologist John Edward Gray in 1832, making it one of the earliest known species in the genus Trimeresurus.

It's worth noting that bites from the Mangrove pit viper are treated with polyvalent antivenin in SE Asian hospitals, as there is no antivenin specifically made for this snake.