title: Molecular evolution and diversity of Conus peptide toxins, as revealed by gene structure and intron sequence analyses.
abstract: Cone snails, which are predatory marine gastropods, produce a cocktail of venoms used for predation, defense and competition. The major venom component, conotoxin, has received significant attention because it is useful in neuroscience research, drug development and molecular diversity studies. In this study, we report the genomic characterization of nine conotoxin gene superfamilies from 18 Conus species and investigate the relationships among conotoxin gene structure, molecular evolution and diversity. The I1, I2, M, O2, O3, P, S, and T superfamily precursors all contain three exons and two introns, while A superfamily members contain two exons and one intron. The introns are conserved within a certain gene superfamily, and also conserved across different Conus species, but divergent among different superfamilies. The intronic sequences contain many simple repeat sequences and regulatory elements that may influence conotoxin gene expression. Furthermore, due to the unique gene structure of conotoxins, the base substitution rates and the number of positively selected sites vary greatly among exons. Many more point mutations and trinucleotide indels were observed in the mature peptide exon than in the other exons. In addition, the first example of alternative splicing in conotoxin genes was found. These results suggest that the diversity of conotoxin genes has been shaped by point mutations and indels, as well as rare gene recombination or alternative splicing events, and that the unique gene structures could have made a contribution to the evolution of conotoxin genes.
authors.affiliation: Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Maojun
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Functional Genes, National Engineering Research Center of South China Sea Marine Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, College of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yuwen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: You
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Functional Genes, National Engineering Research Center of South China Sea Marine Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, College of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Functional Genes, National Engineering Research Center of South China Sea Marine Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, College of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qiang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Functional Genes, National Engineering Research Center of South China Sea Marine Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, College of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Mengying
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Functional Genes, National Engineering Research Center of South China Sea Marine Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, College of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Shaonan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Functional Genes, National Engineering Research Center of South China Sea Marine Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, College of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Zhenghua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Functional Genes, National Engineering Research Center of South China Sea Marine Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, College of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China ; Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Anlong
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000818:Animals; D001482:Base Composition; D052078:Conus Snail / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005091:Exons; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D023061:Gene Order; D007438:Introns; D005810:Multigene Family; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012910:Snake Venoms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D012910:Snake Venoms