Dataset Information

The venom gland transcriptome of Latrodectus tredecimguttatus revealed by deep sequencing and cDNA library analysis.

ABSTRACT: Latrodectus tredecimguttatus, commonly known as black widow spider, is well known for its dangerous bite. Although its venom has been characterized extensively, some fundamental questions about its molecular composition remain unanswered. The limited transcriptome and genome data available prevent further understanding of spider venom at the molecular level. In the present study, we combined next-generation sequencing and conventional DNA sequencing to construct a venom gland transcriptome of the spider L. tredecimguttatus, which resulted in the identification of 9,666 and 480 high-confidence proteins among 34,334 de novo sequences and 1,024 cDNA sequences, respectively, by assembly, translation, filtering, quantification and annotation. Extensive functional analyses of these proteins indicated that mRNAs involved in RNA transport and spliceosome, protein translation, processing and transport were highly enriched in the venom gland, which is consistent with the specific function of venom glands, namely the production of toxins. Furthermore, we identified 146 toxin-like proteins forming 12 families, including 6 new families in this spider in which ?-LTX-Lt1a family2 is firstly identified as a subfamily of ?-LTX-Lt1a family. The toxins were classified according to their bioactivities into five categories that functioned in a coordinate way. Few ion channels were expressed in venom gland cells, suggesting a possible mechanism of protection from the attack of their own toxins. The present study provides a gland transcriptome profile and extends our understanding of the toxinome of spiders and coordination mechanism for toxin production in protein expression quantity.

SUBMITTER: He Q

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3842942 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

The venom gland transcriptome of Latrodectus tredecimguttatus revealed by deep sequencing and cDNA library analysis.

He Quanze Q Duan Zhigui Z Yu Ying Y Liu Zhen Z Liu Zhonghua Z Liang Songping S

PloS one 20131128 11

Latrodectus tredecimguttatus, commonly known as black widow spider, is well known for its dangerous bite. Although its venom has been characterized extensively, some fundamental questions about its molecular composition remain unanswered. The limited transcriptome and genome data available prevent further understanding of spider venom at the molecular level. In the present study, we combined next-generation sequencing and conventional DNA sequencing to construct a venom gland transcriptome of th ...[more]

PMID: 24312294

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundArthropod venoms are invaluable sources of bioactive substances with biotechnological application. The limited availability of some venoms, such as those from ants, has restricted the knowledge about the composition and the potential that these biomolecules could represent. In order to provide a global insight on the transcripts expressed in the venom gland of the Brazilian ant species Tetramorium bicarinatum and to unveil the potential of its products, high-throughput approach using Illumina technology has been applied to analyze the genes expressed in active venom glands of this ant species.ResultsA total of 212,371,758 pairs of quality-filtered, 100-base-pair Illumina reads were obtained. The de novo assemblies yielded 36,042 contigs for which 27,873 have at least one predicted ORF among which 59.77% produce significant hits in the available databases. The investigation of the reads mapping toxin class revealed a high diversification with the major part consistent with the classical hymenopteran venom protein signature represented by venom allergen (33.3%), followed by a diverse toxin-expression profile including several distinct isoforms of phospholipase A1 and A2, venom serine protease, hyaluronidase, protease inhibitor and secapin. Moreover, our results revealed for the first time the presence of toxin-like peptides that have been previously identified from unrelated venomous animals such as waprin-like (snakes) and agatoxins (spiders and conus).The non-toxin transcripts were mainly represented by contigs involved in protein folding and translation, consistent with the protein-secretory function of the venom gland tissue. Finally, about 40% of the generated contigs have no hits in the databases with 25% of the predicted peptides bearing signal peptide emphasizing the potential of the investigation of these sequences as source of new molecules. Among these contigs, six putative novel peptides that show homologies with previously identified antimicrobial peptides were identified.ConclusionsTo the best of our knowledge, this work reports the first large-scale analysis of genes transcribed by the venomous gland of the ant species T. bicarinatum and helps with the identification of Hymenoptera toxin arsenal. In addition, results from this study demonstrate that de novo transcriptome assembly allows useful venom gene expression analysis in a species lacking a genome sequence database.

Dataset Information

The venom gland transcriptome of Latrodectus tredecimguttatus revealed by deep sequencing and cDNA library analysis.

Publications

The venom gland transcriptome of Latrodectus tredecimguttatus revealed by deep sequencing and cDNA library analysis.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets