Transcriptome analysis of the venom gland of Thorellius atrox by RNA-seq

The venom glands from the telsons of four specimens of the Mexican scorpion Thorellius atrox were dissected and the total RNA was extracted. A cDNA library was constructed and subjected to RNA-seq by Illumina. The reads were assembled de novo with Trinity and annotated with Trinotate. A total of 44,049,844 reads were obtained by the RNA-seq procedure. The Trinity assembly resulted in a total of 129,950 transcripts, of which 20,851 were successfully annotated by Trinotate. One hundred and sixty transcripts were identified potentially coding for scorpion venom components.