title: In silico characterization of the neuropeptidome of the Western black widow spider Latrodectus hesperus.
abstract: Technological advancements in high-throughput sequencing have resulted in the production/public deposition of an ever-growing number of arthropod transcriptomes. While most sequencing projects have focused on hexapods, transcriptomes have also been generated for members of the Chelicerata. One chelicerate for which a large transcriptome has recently been released is the Western black widow Latrodectus hesperus, a member of the Araneae (true spiders). Here, a neuropeptidome for L. hesperus was predicted using this resource. Thirty-eight peptide-encoding transcripts were mined from the L. hesperus transcriptome, with 216 distinct peptides predicted from the deduced pre/preprohormones. The identified peptides included members of the allatostatin A, allatostatin B, allatostatin C, allatotropin, bursicon α, bursicon β, CAPA/periviscerokinin/pyrokinin, CCHamide, corazonin, crustacean cardioactive peptide, crustacean hyperglycemic hormone/ion transport peptide, diuretic hormone 31, diuretic hormone 44, FMRFamide-like peptide (FLP), GSEFLamide, insulin-like peptide, neuropeptide F (NPF), orcokinin, proctolin, short neuropeptide F, SIFamide, sulfakinin and tachykinin-related peptide (TRP) families. Of particular note were the identifications of a carboxyl (C)-terminally extended corazonin, FLPs possessing -IMRFamide, -MMYFamide, and -MIHFamide C-termini, a NPF and a sulfakinin each ending in -RYamide rather than -RFamide, a precursor whose orcokinins include C-terminally amidated isoforms, and a collection of TRPs possessing -FXPXLamide rather than the stereotypical -FXGXLamide C-termini. The L. hesperus peptidome is by far the largest thus far published for any member of the Chelicerata. Taken collectively, these data serve as a reference for future neuropeptide discovery in the Araneae and provide a foundation for future studies of peptidergic control in L. hesperus and other spiders.
authors.affiliation: Békésy Laboratory of Neurobiology, Pacific Biosciences Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1993 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. Electronic address: crabman@pbrc.hawaii.edu.
authors.forename: Andrew E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Christie
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001740:Black Widow Spider / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D019835:FMRFamide / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D007301:Insect Hormones / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D007447:Invertebrate Hormones / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020543:Proteome / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D007301:Insect Hormones; D019476:Insect Proteins; D007447:Invertebrate Hormones; D009479:Neuropeptides; D009842:Oligopeptides; D020543:Proteome; C093061:periviscerokinin; C076523:allatostatin; C060602:corazonin protein, insect; C011536:proctolin; D019835:FMRFamide; C050669:allatotropin; C002295:bursicon
keywords: Araneae; Bioinformatics; Chelicerata; Transcriptome shotgun assembly