Firing the Sting: Chemically Induced Discharge of Cnidae Reveals Novel Proteins and Peptides from Box Jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri) Venom

Toxins

Mahdokht Jouiaei²  Nicholas R. Casewell⁵  Angel A. Yanagihara³  Amanda Nouwens⁴  Bronwen W. Cribb¹  Darryl Whitehead⁷  Timothy N. W. Jackson²  Syed A. Ali²  Simon C. Wagstaff⁶  Ivan Koludarov²  Paul Alewood⁸  Jay Hansen²  Bryan G. Fry² 

[1] Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis and School of Biological Sciences, the University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; E-Mail:;Venom Evolution Lab, School of Biological Sciences, the University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; E-Mails:;Pacific Cnidaria Research Lab, Department of Tropical Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA; E-Mail:;School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, the University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; E-Mail:;Alistair Reid Venom Research Unit, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool L3 5QA, UK; E-Mail:;Bioinformatics Unit, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool L3 5QA, UK; E-Mail:;School of Biomedical Sciences, the University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; E-Mail:;Institute for Molecular Bioscience, the University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; E-Mail:

关键词: Chironex fleckeri;    transcriptome;    proteome;    nematocyst;    pressure induced disruption;    ethanol induced discharge;   

DOI  :  10.3390/toxins7030936

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Cnidarian venom research has lagged behind other toxinological fields due to technical difficulties in recovery of the complex venom from the microscopic nematocysts. Here we report a newly developed rapid, repeatable and cost effective technique of venom preparation, using ethanol to induce nematocyst discharge and to recover venom contents in one step. Our model species was the Australian box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri), which has a notable impact on public health. By utilizing scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy, we examined nematocyst external morphology before and after ethanol treatment and verified nematocyst discharge. Further, to investigate nematocyst content or “venom” recovery, we utilized both top-down and bottom-up transcriptomics–proteomics approaches and compared the proteome profile of this new ethanol recovery based method to a previously reported high activity and recovery protocol, based upon density purified intact cnidae and pressure induced disruption. In addition to recovering previously characterized box jellyfish toxins, including CfTX-A/B and CfTX-1, we recovered putative metalloproteases and novel expression of a small serine protease inhibitor. This study not only reveals a much more complex toxin profile of Australian box jellyfish venom but also suggests that ethanol extraction method could augment future cnidarian venom proteomics research efforts.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.