Abstract
Scorpion venom is deemed to contain many toxic peptides as an important source of natural compounds. Out of the two hundred proteins identified in Mesobuthus martensii (M. martensii), only a few peptide toxins have been found so far. Herein, a combinational approach based upon RNA sequencing and Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (LC MS/MS) was employed to explore the venom peptides in M. martensii. A total of 153 proteins were identified from the scorpion venom, 26 previously known and 127 newly identified. Of the novel toxins, 97 proteins exhibited sequence similarities to known toxins, and 30 were never reported. Combining peptidomic and transcriptomic analyses, the peptide sequence of BmKKx1 was reannotated and four disulfide bridges were confirmed within it. In light of the comparison of conservation and variety of toxin amino acid sequences, highly conserved and variable regions were perceived in 24 toxins that were parts of two sodium channel and two potassium channel toxins families. Taking all of this evidences together, the peptidomic analysis on M. martensii indeed identified numerous novel scorpion peptides, expanded our knowledge towards the venom diversity, and afforded a set of pharmaceutical candidates.
Highlights
Venomous animals are the most fascinating species, using poisons or venoms to capture preys or defend themselves
The proteomic approach is based on the final product, while the transcriptomic approach is based on the genomic recipe book of potential toxins
This study focused mainly on peptide toxins and larger proteins (> 10 KD) were filtered manually
Summary
Venomous animals are the most fascinating species, using poisons or venoms to capture preys or defend themselves. The task to survey the complete diversity of venom is not trivial due mainly to the vast complexity of animal venoms and low resolution of separation techniques. It is this amazing complexity and large number of peptides that pose the greatest challenge to venomics [3]. This task can be deeply approached with two different methods: proteomic/peptidomic and transcriptomic (genomic) approaches [4,5]. Combining proteomic and transcriptomic approaches together can be the best way to profile the venom toxin composition
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