Toxins found in the skin of poison dart frogs may hitch a ride there via molecular taxicabs.
As a group, poison dart frogs (Dendrobatidae) host an assortment of more than 500 poisonous compounds called alkaloids that the amphibians acquire from a steady diet of insects (SN: 9/3/03). But how these toxins, which help to fend off predators, make it from a frog’s intestines to its skin has been a mystery.
Now, scientists have pinpointed a protein that can give at least some poisons a ride. The protein, dubbed alkaloid binding globulin, or ABG, might pick up alkaloids from a frog’s blood or intestines and transport the toxins to the skin as a chemical defense, researchers report December 19 in eLife. The newly identified protein shares similarities with other proteins that transport hormones in mammals. Such a resemblance might help scientists develop comparable proteins that could, for example, soak up toxins to treat human overdoses.
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