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Characterization of the First Conotoxin from Conus ateralbus, a Vermivorous Cone Snail from the Cabo Verde Archipelago.

ABSTRACT: Conus ateralbus is a cone snail endemic to the west side of the island of Sal, in the Cabo Verde Archipelago off West Africa. We describe the isolation and characterization of the first bioactive peptide from the venom of this species. This 30AA venom peptide is named conotoxin AtVIA (?-conotoxin-like). An excitatory activity was manifested by the peptide on a majority of mouse lumbar dorsal root ganglion neurons. An analog of AtVIA with conservative changes on three amino acid residues at the C-terminal region was synthesized and this analog produced an identical effect on the mouse neurons. AtVIA has homology with ?-conotoxins from other worm-hunters, which include conserved sequence elements that are shared with ?-conotoxins from fish-hunting Conus. In contrast, there is no comparable sequence similarity with ?-conotoxins from the venoms of molluscivorous Conus species. A rationale for the potential presence of ?-conotoxins, that are potent in vertebrate systems in two different lineages of worm-hunting cone snails, is discussed.

SUBMITTER: Neves JLB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6723684 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Characterization of the First Conotoxin from <i>Conus ateralbus</i>, a Vermivorous Cone Snail from the Cabo Verde Archipelago.

Neves Jorge L B JLB Imperial Julita S JS Morgenstern David D Ueberheide Beatrix B Gajewiak Joanna J Antunes Agostinho A Robinson Samuel D SD Espino Samuel S Watkins Maren M Vasconcelos Vitor V Olivera Baldomero M BM

Marine drugs 20190724 8

<i>Conus ateralbus</i> is a cone snail endemic to the west side of the island of Sal, in the Cabo Verde Archipelago off West Africa. We describe the isolation and characterization of the first bioactive peptide from the venom of this species. This 30AA venom peptide is named conotoxin AtVIA (δ-conotoxin-like). An excitatory activity was manifested by the peptide on a majority of mouse lumbar dorsal root ganglion neurons. An analog of AtVIA with conservative changes on three amino acid residues a ...[more]

PMID: 31344776

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Project description:Due to their great species and ecological diversity as well as their capacity to produce hundreds of different toxins, cone snails are of interest to evolutionary biologists, pharmacologists and amateur naturalists alike. Taxonomic identification of cone snails still relies mostly on the shape, color, and banding patterns of the shell. However, these phenotypic traits are prone to homoplasy. Therefore, the consistent use of genetic data for species delimitation and phylogenetic inference in this apparently hyperdiverse group is largely wanting. Here, we reconstruct the phylogeny of the cones endemic to Cabo Verde archipelago, a well-known radiation of the group, using mitochondrial (mt) genomes.The reconstructed phylogeny grouped the analyzed species into two main clades, one including Kalloconus from West Africa sister to Trovaoconus from Cabo Verde and the other with a paraphyletic Lautoconus due to the sister group relationship of Africonus from Cabo Verde and Lautoconus ventricosus from Mediterranean Sea and neighboring Atlantic Ocean to the exclusion of Lautoconus endemic to Senegal (plus Lautoconus guanche from Mauritania, Morocco, and Canary Islands). Within Trovaoconus, up to three main lineages could be distinguished. The clade of Africonus included four main lineages (named I to IV), each further subdivided into two monophyletic groups. The reconstructed phylogeny allowed inferring the evolution of the radula in the studied lineages as well as biogeographic patterns. The number of cone species endemic to Cabo Verde was revised under the light of sequence divergence data and the inferred phylogenetic relationships.The sequence divergence between continental members of the genus Kalloconus and island endemics ascribed to the genus Trovaoconus is low, prompting for synonymization of the latter. The genus Lautoconus is paraphyletic. Lautoconus ventricosus is the closest living sister group of genus Africonus. Diversification of Africonus was in allopatry due to the direct development nature of their larvae and mainly triggered by eustatic sea level changes during the Miocene-Pliocene. Our study confirms the diversity of cone endemic to Cabo Verde but significantly reduces the number of valid species. Applying a sequence divergence threshold, the number of valid species within the sampled Africonus is reduced to half.

Dataset Information

Characterization of the First Conotoxin from Conus ateralbus, a Vermivorous Cone Snail from the Cabo Verde Archipelago.

Publications

Characterization of the First Conotoxin from <i>Conus ateralbus</i>, a Vermivorous Cone Snail from the Cabo Verde Archipelago.

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