Elucidation of the molecular envenomation strategy of the cone snail Conus geographus through transcriptome sequencing of its venom duct

BMC Genomics

Research Article

Baldomero M Olivera¹  Pradip K Bandyopadhyay¹  Hao Hu²  Mark Yandell² 

[1] Department of Biology, University of Utah, 84112, Salt Lake City, UT, USA;Eccles institute of Human Genetics, University of Utah, and School of Medicine, 84112, Salt Lake City, UT, USA;

关键词: Conus geographus;    Conotoxins;    RNA-seq;    Venom duct compartmentalization;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2164-13-284

 received in 2012-02-29, accepted in 2012-06-07,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe fish-hunting cone snail, Conus geographus, is the deadliest snail on earth. In the absence of medical intervention, 70% of human stinging cases are fatal. Although, its venom is known to consist of a cocktail of small peptides targeting different ion-channels and receptors, the bulk of its venom constituents, their sites of manufacture, relative abundances and how they function collectively in envenomation has remained unknown.ResultsWe have used transcriptome sequencing to systematically elucidate the contents the C. geographus venom duct, dividing it into four segments in order to investigate each segment’s mRNA contents. Three different types of calcium channel (each targeted by unrelated, entirely distinct venom peptides) and at least two different nicotinic receptors appear to be targeted by the venom. Moreover, the most highly expressed venom component is not paralytic, but causes sensory disorientation and is expressed in a different segment of the venom duct from venoms believed to cause sensory disruption. We have also identified several new toxins of interest for pharmaceutical and neuroscience research.ConclusionsConus geographus is believed to prey on fish hiding in reef crevices at night. Our data suggest that disorientation of prey is central to its envenomation strategy. Furthermore, venom expression profiles also suggest a sophisticated layering of venom-expression patterns within the venom duct, with disorientating and paralytic venoms expressed in different regions. Thus, our transcriptome analysis provides a new physiological framework for understanding the molecular envenomation strategy of this deadly snail.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Hu et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.