title: A Comparative Analysis of the Venom Gland Transcriptomes of the Fishing Spiders Dolomedes mizhoanus and Dolomedes sulfurous.
abstract: Dolomedes sulfurous and Dolomedes mizhoanus are predaceous arthropods catching and feeding on small fish. They live in the same area and have similar habits. Their venoms exhibit some similarities and differences in biochemical and electrophysiological properties. In the present work, we first performed a transcriptomic analysis by constructing the venom gland cDNA library of D. sulfurous and 127 novel putative toxin sequences were consequently identified, which were classified into eight families. This venom gland transcriptome was then compared with that of D. mizhoanus, which revealed that the putative toxins from both spider venoms might have originated from the same gene ancestors although novel toxins were evolved independently in the two spiders. The putative toxins from both spiders contain 6-12 cysteine residues forming seven cysteine patterns. As revealed by blast search, the two venoms are rich in neurotoxins targeting ion channels with pharmacological and therapeutic significance. This study provides insight into the venoms of two closely related species of spider, which will be of use for future investigations into the structure and function of their toxins.
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Xunxun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Hengyun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Zhaotun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Songping
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Zhonghua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003545:Cysteine / Q000378:metabolism; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D015723:Gene Library; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization; D013111:Spider Venoms / Q000378:metabolism*; D013112:Spiders / Q000235:genetics; D014118:Toxins, Biological / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D007473:Ion Channels; D013111:Spider Venoms; D014118:Toxins, Biological; D003545:Cysteine