Bhere Kanaka Varun, Haney Robert A, Ayoub Nadia A, Garb Jessica E
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell, MA, USA.
Department of Biology, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA, USA.
FEBS Lett. 2014 Nov 3;588(21):3891-7. doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2014.08.034. Epub 2014 Sep 12.
Black widow venom contains α-latrotoxin, infamous for causing intense pain. Combining 33 kb of Latrodectus hesperus genomic DNA with RNA-Seq, we characterized the α-latrotoxin gene and discovered a paralog, 4.5 kb downstream. Both paralogs exhibit venom gland specific transcription, and may be regulated post-transcriptionally via musashi-like proteins. A 4 kb intron interrupts the α-latrotoxin coding sequence, while a 10 kb intron in the 3' UTR of the paralog may cause non-sense-mediated decay. Phylogenetic analysis confirms these divergent latrotoxins diversified through recent tandem gene duplications. Thus, latrotoxin genes have more complex structures, regulatory controls, and sequence diversity than previously proposed.
黑寡妇毒液含有α- Latrotoxin,因其会引发剧痛而声名狼藉。我们将33 kb的西方黑寡妇基因组DNA与RNA测序相结合,对α- Latrotoxin基因进行了表征,并在其下游4.5 kb处发现了一个旁系同源基因。这两个旁系同源基因均表现出毒腺特异性转录,并且可能通过类musashi蛋白在转录后受到调控。一个4 kb的内含子中断了α- Latrotoxin编码序列,而旁系同源基因3'UTR中的一个10 kb内含子可能导致无义介导的衰变。系统发育分析证实,这些不同的Latrotoxins是通过最近的串联基因复制而多样化的。因此,Latrotoxin基因具有比先前提出的更为复杂的结构、调控控制和序列多样性。