Novel aquatic silk genes Simulium (Psilozia) vittatum (Zett) Diptera: Simuliidae.
The silks of arthropods have an elementary role in the natural history of the organisms that spin them, yet they are coded by rapidly evolving genes leading some authors to speculate that silk proteins are non-homologous proteins co-opted multiple times independently for similar functions. However, some general structural patterns are emerging. In this work we identified three major silk gland proteins using a combined biochemical, proteomic, next-generation sequencing and bioinformatic approach. Biochemical characterization determined that they were phosphorylated with multiple isoforms and potentially differential phosphorylation. Structural characterization showed that their structure was more similar to silk proteins from distantly related aquatic Trichopteran species than more closely related terrestrial or aquatic Diptera. Overall, our approach is easily transferable to any non-model species and if used across a larger number of aquatic species, we will be able to better understand the processes involved in linking the secondary structure of silk proteins with their function between in an organisms and its habitat.
CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Black Mountain Labs, GPO 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. Electronic address: alexie@butterflybase.org.
Alexie
A
Papanicolaou
Biology Department, Creighton University, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68131, USA.
Angelica
A
Woo
Biology Department, Creighton University, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68131, USA.
Brianna
B
Brei
Entomology Department, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Danjun
D
Ma
Biology Department, Creighton University, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68131, USA.
Andrius
A
Masedunskas
Entomology Department, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Elmer
E
Gray
Genomics and Functional Proteomics Laboratory, Creighton University Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
Gary Guishan
GG
Xiao
Biology Department, Creighton University, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68131, USA. Electronic address: SoochinCho@creighton.edu.
Soochin
S
Cho
Biology Department, Creighton University, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68131, USA. Electronic address: CharlesBrockhouse@creighton.edu.
Charles
C
Brockhouse
D000818:Animals; D010766:Phosphorylation; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D040901:Proteomics; D047011:Silk / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D012843:Simuliidae / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics
D047011:Silk
Black fly; Simulium vittatum; Silk proteins; Silk genes; Phosphoproteins; Transcriptomics; Proteomics