Tetraodontidae means four-toothed , a characteristic of this order of puffer fish. The molecule tetrodotoxin is not inherent in these fish from birth, rather it is aquired from the food chain via dinoflagellates, and it harvests in the liver, gonads, intestines, and skin of the fish. Although not harmful to the fish, any organism that eats the fish can become seriously ill and die within half an hour. This fish can be eaten legally if prepared by a certified chef. It is quite popular as a delicacy in Japan, where it causes an average of 100 deaths per year. The mechanism by which this toxin exudes its effects is by binding reversibly to the voltage gated sodium channel of a nerve cell, blocking neurotransmission; thus, the compound is known as an ion channel neurotoxin.
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Obtained courtesy of the Cambridge Structural Database
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