Venomous auger snail Hastula (Impages) hectica (Linnaeus, 1758): molecular phylogeny, foregut anatomy and comparative toxinology.
The >10,000 living venomous marine snail species [superfamily Conoidea (Fleming, 1822)] include cone snails (Conus), the overwhelming focus of research. Hastula hectica (Linnaeus, 1758), a venomous snail in the family Terebridae (Mörch, 1852) was comprehensively investigated. The Terebridae comprise a major monophyletic group within Conoidea. H. hectica has a striking radular tooth to inject venom that looks like a perforated spear; in Conus, the tooth looks like a hypodermic needle. H. hectica venom contains a large complement of small disulfide-rich peptides, but with no apparent overlap with Conus in gene superfamilies expressed. Although Conus peptide toxins are densely post-translationally modified, no post-translationally modified amino acids were found in any Hastula venom peptide. The results suggest that different major lineages of venomous molluscs have strikingly divergent toxinological and venom-delivery strategies.
Imperial
Julita S
JS
Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA.
Kantor
Yuri
Y
Watkins
Maren
M
Heralde
Francisco M
FM
Stevenson
Bradford
B
Chen
Ping
P
Hansson
Karin
K
Stenflo
Johan
J
Ownby
John-Paul
JP
Bouchet
Philippe
P
Olivera
Baldomero M
BM
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D008978:Mollusk Venoms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000633:toxicity*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012908:Snails / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
D018076:DNA, Complementary; D008978:Mollusk Venoms