Abstract
This communication reports a further examination of venom gland transcripts and venom composition of the Mexican scorpion Thorellius atrox using RNA-seq and tandem mass spectrometry. The RNA-seq, which was performed with the Illumina protocol, yielded more than 20,000 assembled transcripts. Following a database search and annotation strategy, 160 transcripts were identified, potentially coding for venom components. A novel sequence was identified that potentially codes for a peptide with similarity to spider ω-agatoxins, which act on voltage-gated calcium channels, not known before to exist in scorpion venoms. Analogous transcripts were found in other scorpion species. They could represent members of a new scorpion toxin family, here named omegascorpins. The mass fingerprint by LC-MS identified 135 individual venom components, five of which matched with the theoretical masses of putative peptides translated from the transcriptome. The LC-MS/MS de novo sequencing allowed to reconstruct and identify 42 proteins encoded by assembled transcripts, thus validating the transcriptome analysis. Earlier studies conducted with this scorpion venom permitted the identification of only twenty putative venom components. The present work performed with more powerful and modern omic technologies demonstrates the capacity of accomplishing a deeper characterization of scorpion venom components and the identification of novel molecules with potential applications in biomedicine and the study of ion channel physiology.
Highlights
Scorpions are very successful carnivorous hunters that, except for the frozen poles and a few oceanic islands, inhabit all major terrestrial ecosystems of our planet [1]
These include over 12% of the described scorpion species, comprising 281 species belonging to 38 genera and 8 families, those of Buthidae, Caraboctonidae, Chactidae, Diplocentridae, Euscorpiidae, Superstitioniidae, Typlochactidae and Vaejovidae, being the latter the one with the highest diversity [2]
M. gerstchi peptides we indicate in Figure 4D, that they end in a canonical signal for amidation, so we postulate that they have amidated C-termini, a feature found in μ-agatoxins and type III, but not in type IV ω-agatoxins [44]
Summary
Scorpions are very successful carnivorous hunters that, except for the frozen poles and a few oceanic islands, inhabit all major terrestrial ecosystems of our planet [1]. Their success relies on the production of very potent neurotoxic venom that paralyzes and kills their preys and repels their competitors or predators. These include over 12% of the described scorpion species, comprising 281 species belonging to 38 genera and 8 families, those of Buthidae (the one of medical importance), Caraboctonidae, Chactidae, Diplocentridae, Euscorpiidae, Superstitioniidae, Typlochactidae and Vaejovidae, being the latter the one with the highest diversity [2]. The family Vaejovidae is broadly distributed from Canada to Guatemala, but Mexico harbors the highest diversity, with 149 species belonging to 21 genera [2]
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