Modern venom profiling: mining into scorpion venom biodiversity

Scorpions and their sting are infamous for causing pain, morbidity, and, in some cases, death. However, research into scorpion venoms has revealed the presence of components that potentially have beneficial properties for humans. Such components may be developed into therapeutics or bioinsecticides. In order to assess the biodiversity of components present in scorpion venoms, proteomic and transcriptomic approaches have been applied to numerous scorpion species. This chapter presents our current knowledge in the field of venom-wide studies of scorpions. Discussions on the pros and cons of several proteomic and transcriptomic techniques used to investigate scorpion venoms are also included