Torpedo nobiliana

Fig. 1. Isolation of cholinergic vesicles from Torpedo nobiliana by zonal centrifugation in a sucrose-NaCl gradient. The large protein peak corresponds to soluble protein, the small one to membrane bound protein. A few particles corresponding to nerve ending particles may have been formed, as...

The experiments described show that phospholipase A, isolated from the venom of Naja Naja siamensis and able to form lysolecithin from biosynthetically formed labelled lecithin, gradually weakens and breaks down synaptic vesicles from rat brain cortex and cholinergic vesicles from the electric organ of Torpedo nobiliana, thereby... 

Synaptic vesicles, isolated from rat brain cortex, and cholinergic vesicles, isolated from the electric organ of Torpedo nobiliana, were broken down by a phospholipase A from cobra venom. The breakdown was accompanied by a release of acetylcholine. Morphological analysis revealed membrane fragments about one-third the size of the vesicle circumference. Subcellular fractions enriched in nerve ending membranes showed some phospholipase A activity. On the basis of these findings models of transmitter release, involving specific alterations of lipid components in the vesicular membrane, are discussed. 

Interestingly, the Roman physicians Claudius Galenus (129-199 AD) and Scribonlus Largus (court physician to the Roman emperor Claudius) had already described In their collections of medical recipes (around 47 AD) the use of electric shocks with the Atlantic electric ray Torpedo nobiliana) for the treatment of gout. 

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