ABSTRACT
Peptide toxins are constituents of some of the most potent venoms in the biological world. Since there have been relatively few well-documented cases of envenomations by species of Conus there are still questions as to which species are toxic to humans. It is important to understand the precise mechanism of venom production since it is possible that some of the final processing of toxin precursors may occur within the prey. A common feature of the crude venom extracted from all Conus species is the presence of numerous granules which are big enough to be observed by low power light microscopy. In some species, granules differ in light-microscopic appearance in different regions of the venom duct. Water-soluble fractions of Conus venoms have been examined previously by denaturing gel electrophoresis. In that work, extracts were made from small segments of the ducts, but the crude venom from each segment was then apparently pooled for each animal before electrophoretic examination.
