Abstract
Sea anemones produce venoms of exceptional molecular diversity, with at least 17 different molecular scaffolds reported to date. These venom components have traditionally been classified according to pharmacological activity and amino acid sequence. However, this classification system suffers from vulnerabilities due to functional convergence and functional promiscuity. Furthermore, for most known sea anemone toxins, the exact receptors they target are either unknown, or at best incomplete. In this review, we first provide an overview of the sea anemone venom system and then focus on the venom components. We have organised the venom components by distinguishing firstly between proteins and non-proteinaceous compounds, secondly between enzymes and other proteins without enzymatic activity, then according to the structural scaffold, and finally according to molecular target.
Highlights
Sea anemones, sometimes poetically referred to as the flowers of the sea, are exclusively marine animals that belong to the phylum Cnidaria (Figure 1A)
There is a large discrepancy between the types of enzymes reported from transcriptomic studies of sea anemones with those reported from studies on milked venom
Sea anemones do not have a centralised venom gland, and it is difficult using transcriptomic techniques to distinguish between enzymes with a housekeeping function and those that play a role in envenomation [41]
Summary
Sometimes poetically referred to as the flowers of the sea, are exclusively marine animals that belong to the phylum Cnidaria (Figure 1A). Sea anemones areusing flexible in the ways intowhich nutrition [5], they tissue,fundamentally have no visual capacity,animals, and lack a centralized or coordinated nervous seatrue anemones predatory using their tentacles to catch prey. Becausesystem, they lack muscle rely tissue, have no capacity, The and lack a centralized or coordinated nervous system, sea anemones heavily on toxins forvisual prey capture. Sea anemones are commonly prey capture and ingestion of larger animals such as crabs, molluscs and even fish [7]. Rodrigues et al, [4])
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