Hye Seon Kim

Jan 2, 2025 | sciencedirect.com | Hye Seon Kim |Peter Morse |Kyall Zenger |Jinsoon Park

A variety of phylogenetically distant taxa, including flatworms, mollusks, amphibians, and fishes, use the deadly neurotoxin tetrodotoxin (TTX) for predation and defense1. A well-known example is the blue-lined octopus, Hapalochlaena fasciata (Hoyle, 1886), which uses symbiotic bacteria to sequester TTX in its posterior salivary glands (PSG)2. When it bites, the TTX-laden saliva immobilizes large prey and has caused lethal envenomation in a few incidents involving humans3.