title: Molecular Diversity and Gene Evolution of the Venom Arsenal of Terebridae Predatory Marine Snails.
abstract: Venom peptides from predatory organisms are a resource for investigating evolutionary processes such as adaptive radiation or diversification, and exemplify promising targets for biomedical drug development. Terebridae are an understudied lineage of conoidean snails, which also includes cone snails and turrids. Characterization of cone snail venom peptides, conotoxins, has revealed a cocktail of bioactive compounds used to investigate physiological cellular function, predator-prey interactions, and to develop novel therapeutics. However, venom diversity of other conoidean snails remains poorly understood. The present research applies a venomics approach to characterize novel terebrid venom peptides, teretoxins, from the venom gland transcriptomes of Triplostephanus anilis and Terebra subulata. Next-generation sequencing and de novo assembly identified 139 putative teretoxins that were analyzed for the presence of canonical peptide features as identified in conotoxins. To meet the challenges of de novo assembly, multiple approaches for cross validation of findings were performed to achieve reliable assemblies of venom duct transcriptomes and to obtain a robust portrait of Terebridae venom. Phylogenetic methodology was used to identify 14 teretoxin gene superfamilies for the first time, 13 of which are unique to the Terebridae. Additionally, basic local algorithm search tool homology-based searches to venom-related genes and posttranslational modification enzymes identified a convergence of certain venom proteins, such as actinoporin, commonly found in venoms. This research provides novel insights into venom evolution and recruitment in Conoidean predatory marine snails and identifies a plethora of terebrid venom peptides that can be used to investigate fundamental questions pertaining to gene evolution.
authors.affiliation: Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York Invertebrate Zoology, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, New York.
authors.forename: Juliette
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gorson
authors.affiliation: Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
authors.forename: Girish
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ramrattan
authors.affiliation: Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York Invertebrate Zoology, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, New York.
authors.forename: Aida
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verdes
authors.affiliation: Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York Invertebrate Zoology, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, New York.
authors.forename: Elizabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.affiliation: A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia Visiting Professor, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kantor
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics, New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering.
authors.forename: Ramakrishnan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rajaram Srinivasan
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics, New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering.
authors.forename: Raj
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Musunuri
authors.affiliation: Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Packer
authors.affiliation: Estação de Biologia Marítima da Inhaca (EBMI), Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Distrito Municipal KaNyaka, Maputo, Mozambique.
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Albano
authors.affiliation: Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
authors.forename: Wei-Gang
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York Invertebrate Zoology, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, New York mholford@hunter.cuny.edu.
authors.forename: Mandë
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Holford
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008978:Mollusk Venoms / Q000235:genetics*; D005810:Multigene Family; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D012908:Snails / Q000145:classification / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D008978:Mollusk Venoms; D010455:Peptides
keywords: Conoidea; Terebridae; teretoxins; transcriptomics; venom evolution; venomics