Abstract
Centipedes are one of the oldest venomous animals and use their venoms as weapons to attack prey or protect themselves. Their venoms contain various components with different biomedical and pharmacological properties. However, little attention has been paid to the profiles and diversity of their toxin-like proteins/peptides. In this study, we used a proteotranscriptomic approach to uncover the diversity of centipede toxin-like proteins in Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans Nine hundred twenty-three and 6,736 peptides, which were separately isolated from venom and torso tissues, respectively, were identified by ESI-MS/MS and deduced from their transcriptomes. Finally, 1369 unique proteins were identified in the proteome, including 100 proteins that exhibited overlapping expression in venom and torso tissues. Of these proteins, at least 40 proteins were identified as venom toxin-like proteins. Meanwhile, transcriptome mining identified ∼10-fold more toxin-like proteins and enabled the characterization of the precursor architecture of mature toxin-like peptides. Importantly, combined with proteomic and transcriptomic analyses, 25 toxin-like proteins/peptides (neurotoxins accounted for 50%) were expressed outside the venom gland and involved in gene recruitment processes. These findings highlight the extensive diversity of centipede toxin-like proteins and provide a new foundation for the medical-pharmaceutical use of centipede toxin-like proteins. Moreover, we are the first group to report the gene recruitment activity of venom toxin-like proteins in centipede, similar to snakes.
Highlights
We present the first complete comparative analysis of the protein content and toxin-like proteins/peptides distribution in the venom gland and torso, based on our RNA-Seq data and MS datasets
Isolation of Venom Gland and Workflow of the Analysis Approach—Venom glands and torso tissues were isolated from the centipede S. mutilans using the protocol described in our previous study (Liu et al, 2012)
Torso tissues were dissected from body segments 3–10, which were separate from all gut tissues
Summary
We present the first complete comparative analysis of the protein content and toxin-like proteins/peptides distribution in the venom gland and torso, based on our RNA-Seq data and MS datasets. These proteins were identified by the transcriptomic analysis that provided information about gene expression but peptides were detected using ESIMS/MS-based identification. Proteins belonging to the second cluster were expressed at higher levels in the venom gland than in torso tissues, most of which were venom toxin-like peptides or secreted proteins, such as neurotoxins and venom allergens.
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