title: Transcriptomic and Proteomic Analysis of Arion vulgaris--Proteins for Probably Successful Survival Strategies?
abstract: The Spanish slug, Arion vulgaris, is considered one of the hundred most invasive species in Central Europe. The immense and very successful adaptation and spreading of A. vulgaris suggest that it developed highly effective mechanisms to deal with infections and natural predators. Current transcriptomic and proteomic studies on gastropods have been restricted mainly to marine and freshwater gastropods. No transcriptomic or proteomic study on A. vulgaris has been carried out so far, and in the current study, the first transcriptomic database from adult specimen of A. vulgaris is reported. To facilitate and enable proteomics in this non-model organism, a mRNA-derived protein database was constructed for protein identification. A gel-based proteomic approach was used to obtain the first generation of a comprehensive slug mantle proteome. A total of 2128 proteins were unambiguously identified; 48 proteins represent novel proteins with no significant homology in NCBI non-redundant database. Combined transcriptomic and proteomic analysis revealed an extensive repertoire of novel proteins with a role in innate immunity including many associated pattern recognition, effector proteins and cytokine-like proteins. The number and diversity in gene families encoding lectins point to a complex defense system, probably as a result of adaptation to a pathogen-rich environment. These results are providing a fundamental and important resource for subsequent studies on molluscs as well as for putative antimicrobial compounds for drug discovery and biomedical applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bulat
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Smidak
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Fernando J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Sialana
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Gangsoo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: Division of Computational System Biology, Department of Microbiology and Ecosystem Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rattei
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Core Facility Genomics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bilban
authors.affiliation: Third Zoological Department, Museum of Natural History Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sattmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Gert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lubec
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aradska
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030562:Databases, Protein; D049851:Gastropoda / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D063990:Gene Ontology; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D020543:Proteome / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D020543:Proteome; D012333:RNA, Messenger