Showing posts with label scorpion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scorpion. Show all posts

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Confusing Toxibbreviations

Dr. Freddy, over at Synthetic Remarks, presented an interesting problem: why do so many molecules have such confusing abbreviations? If you think of an abbreviation as a linguistic shortcut, a way to save time while communicating complex ideas, it makes sense to use something everyone can understand. Unfortunately, the simplest workarounds can also be the most confusing; when I write "RM," do I mean 'recovered material,' or just an alkyl group attached to a catalyst? Depends on your audience.

The strangest shorthands? Natural product toxins.
Batrachotoxin: "Nothing like Brevetoxin."

For convenience, when chemists isolate a new biocide, they assign it a name ending in "toxin," which inevitably shortens to "TX." Pop another letter on the front to differentiate, et voila! (This probably made sense back when we'd found just a small handful of these compounds, but they're getting crowded now.)

Here's a few I tracked down, listed alphabetically:

ATX: Antillatoxin, Anenome toxin, Ammodytoxin, Altertoxin, Aflatoxin, Anatoxin, Adriatoxin
BTX: Botulinum toxin, Batrachotoxin, Brevetoxin
CTX: Charybdotoxin, Conotoxin, Cholera toxin, Ciguatoxin
DTX: Dendrotoxin, Dinophysistoxin, Diphtheria toxin
ETX: Epsilon toxin, Erabutoxin, Edema toxin, exotoxin
FTX: Funnel Web Spider Toxin
Nereistoxin: "Don't call me  Noxiustoxin!"
GTX: Gonyautoxin, Geographutoxin, Gambierotoxin, Gila toxin
HTX: Histrionicotoxin, Hemitoxin, Horridum toxin, Homoanatoxin
ITX: Iota toxin, Paralytic insecticidal toxin, immunotoxin
JTX: Joro spider toxin
KTX: Kaliotoxin
LTX: Latrotoxin, Leukotoxin, Anthrax Lethal toxin
MTX:  Maurotoxin, Maitotoxin, Maculotoxin, Mosquitocidal toxin
NTX: Nereistoxin, Noxiustoxin, neurotoxin
OTX: Ostreotoxin, Orphan toxin
PTX: Pertussis toxin, Palytoxin, Pectenotoxin, Pumiliotoxin
QTX: Quinquestriatus toxin
RTX: Repeat toxins
Saxitoxin: "Will the real STX please stand up?"
STX: Shiga toxin, Saxitoxin
TTX: Tetrodotoxin, Tetanus toxin
UTX: Uraemic toxins
VTX: Verotoxin, Verrucotoxin
WTX: Weak toxin (cobra), Waglerin
XTX: None found...open for business!
YTX: Yessotoxin
ZTX: Zetekitoxin, Zeta toxin

Readers - Have I left out your favorite poison or abbreviation? Let me know in the comments!