Venom Diversity and Evolution in the Most Divergent Cone Snail Genus Profundiconus

Type Article
Date 2019-11
Language English
Author(s) Fassio Giulia1, Modica Maria Vittoria2, 3, Mary Lou4, Zaharias Paul4, Fedosov Alexander E.5, Gorson Juliette6, 7, 8, Kantor Yuri I.5, Holford Mandё6, 7, 8, Puillandre Nicolas4
Affiliation(s) 1 : Department of Biology and Biotechnologies “Charles Darwin”, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
2 : Department of Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121 Naples, Italy
3 : University of Montpellier, 34095 Montpellier, France
4 : Institut Systématique Evolution Biodiversité (ISYEB), Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, EPHE, Université des Antillles, 57 rue Cuvier, CP 26, 75005 Paris, France
5 : A.N. Severtzov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninski prospect 33, 119071 Moscow, Russian
6 : Department of Chemistry, Hunter College, CUNY, New York, NY 10065, USA
7 : Department of Invertebrate Zoology, The American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024, USA
8 : Biology, Biochemistry, and Chemistry programs of The CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY 10016, USA
Source Toxins (2072-6651) (MDPI AG), 2019-11 , Vol. 11 , N. 11 , P. 623 (22p.)
DOI 10.3390/toxins11110623
WOS© Times Cited 15
Note This article belongs to the Section Animal Venoms
Keyword(s) Conidae, conotoxins, turripeptides, transcriptome, venom gland
Abstract

Profundiconus is the most divergent cone snail genus and its unique phylogenetic position, sister to the rest of the family Conidae, makes it a key taxon for examining venom evolution and diversity. Venom gland and foot transcriptomes of Profundiconus cf. vaubani and Profundiconus neocaledonicus were de novo assembled, annotated, and analyzed for differential expression. One hundred and thirty-seven venom components were identified from P. cf. vaubani and 82 from P. neocaledonicus, with only four shared by both species. The majority of the transcript diversity was composed of putative peptides, including conotoxins, profunditoxins, turripeptides, insulin, and prohormone-4. However, there were also a significant percentage of other putative venom components such as chymotrypsin and L-rhamnose-binding lectin. The large majority of conotoxins appeared to be from new gene superfamilies, three of which are highly different from previously reported venom peptide toxins. Their low conotoxin diversity and the type of insulin found suggested that these species, for which no ecological information are available, have a worm or molluscan diet associated with a narrow dietary breadth. Our results indicate that Profundiconus venom is highly distinct from that of other cone snails, and therefore important for examining venom evolution in the Conidae family.

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Fassio Giulia, Modica Maria Vittoria, Mary Lou, Zaharias Paul, Fedosov Alexander E., Gorson Juliette, Kantor Yuri I., Holford Mandё, Puillandre Nicolas (2019). Venom Diversity and Evolution in the Most Divergent Cone Snail Genus Profundiconus. Toxins, 11(11), 623 (22p.). Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins11110623 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00589/70155/