Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC), José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
Department of Zoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Frescativägen 40, 114 18 Stockholm, Sweden.
Toxins (Basel). 2021 Sep 10;13(9):642. doi: 10.3390/toxins13090642.
Venoms are complex mixtures of proteins that have evolved repeatedly in the animal kingdom. Cone snail venoms represent one of the best studied venom systems. In nature, this venom can be dynamically adjusted depending on its final purpose, whether to deter predators or hunt prey. Here, the transcriptome of the venom gland and the proteomes of the predation-evoked and defensive venoms of the molluscivorous cone snail were catalogued. A total of 242 venom-related transcripts were annotated. The conotoxin superfamilies presenting more different peptides were O1, O2, T, and M, which also showed high expression levels (except T). The three precursors of the J superfamily were also highly expressed. The predation-evoked and defensive venoms showed a markedly distinct profile. A total of 217 different peptides were identified, with half of them being unique to one venom. A total of 59 peptides ascribed to 23 different protein families were found to be exclusive to the predatory venom, including the cono-insulin, which was, for the first time, identified in an injected venom. A total of 43 peptides from 20 protein families were exclusive to the defensive venom. Finally, comparisons of the relative abundance (in terms of number of peptides) of the different conotoxin precursor superfamilies showed that most of them present similar abundance regardless of the diet.
毒液是蛋白质的复杂混合物，在动物王国中反复进化。圆锥蜗牛毒液代表了研究得最好的毒液系统之一。在自然界中，这种毒液可以根据其最终目的动态调整，无论是威慑捕食者还是捕食猎物。在这里，记录了软体动物捕食圆锥蜗牛的毒液腺转录组和捕食诱导型及防御型毒液的蛋白质组。共注释了 242 个与毒液相关的转录本。O1、O2、T 和 M 这几个呈现出更多不同肽的毒素超家族，其表达水平也很高（T 除外）。J 超家族的三个前体也高度表达。捕食诱导型和防御型毒液表现出明显不同的特征。共鉴定出 217 种不同的肽，其中一半肽只存在于一种毒液中。总共发现了 59 种肽，属于 23 种不同的蛋白质家族，这些肽只存在于捕食性毒液中，其中包括首次在注射毒液中鉴定到的 cono-insulin。防御性毒液中则有 43 种肽，来自 20 种蛋白质家族。最后，对不同的 conotoxin 前体超家族的相对丰度（以肽的数量为单位）进行比较，发现无论饮食如何，大多数超家族的丰度都相似。
