Estimaram-se as correlações entre fertilidade e concentrações de proteínas, açúcares redutores e 17 tipos de aminoácidos livres do plasma seminal de 19 touros Nelore, adultos, doadores de sêmen de alta qualidade segundo as análises físicas e morfológicas. O escore de fertilidade foi estimado de acordo com a porcentagem de gestação das fêmeas cobertas em três estações de monta consecutivas, por inseminação artificial ou monta natural. Foi observada alta variabilidade na concentração das moléculas analisadas nas amostras. O coeficiente de correlação estimado entre concentrações de proteína e de açúcares redutores foi de 0,90. Individualmente, nenhum dos componentes quantificados apresentou correlação significativa com a fertilidade dos touros.

Correlations between fertility and the concentrations of proteins, reducing sugars and 17 types of free amino acids in the seminal plasma of Nelore bulls were estimated. The samples were collected from 19 bulls that had high quality semen, according to physical and morphological analyses. The bulls had their fertility scores estimated based on the pregnancy of the females mated to them during three consecutive breeding seasons, either by artificial insemination or by natural breeding. A large variability in the concentrations of the molecules was observed among the samples and a significant correlation coefficient (r= 0.90) between levels of proteins and reducing sugars was estimated. None of the components showed a significant correlation with fertility.

A neurotoxic peptide, granulitoxin (GRX), was isolated from the sea anemone Bunodosoma granulifera. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of GRX is AKTGILDSDGPTVAGNSLSGT and its molecular mass is 4958 Da by electrospray mass spectrometry. This sequence presents a partial degree of homology with other toxins from sea anemones such as Bunodosoma caissarum, Anthopleura fuscoviridis and Anemonia sulcata. However, important differences were found: the first six amino acids of the sequence are different, Arg-14 was replaced by Ala and no cysteine residues were present in the partial sequence, while two cysteine residues were present in the first 21 amino acids of other toxins described above. Purified GRX injected ip (800 µg/kg) into mice produced severe neurotoxic effects such as circular movements, aggressive behavior, dyspnea, tonic-clonic convulsion and death. The 2-h LD50 of GRX was 400 ± 83 µg/kg.