Venomous Noodles: The Evolution of Toxins in Nemertea through Positive Selection and Gene Duplication.

ABSTRACT: Some, probably most and perhaps all, members of the phylum Nemertea are poisonous, documented so far from marine and benthic specimens. Although the toxicity of these animals has been long known, systematic studies on the characterization of toxins, mechanisms of toxicity, and toxin evolution for this group are scarce. Here, we present the first investigation of the molecular evolution of toxins in Nemertea. Using a proteo-transcriptomic approach, we described toxins in the body and poisonous mucus of the pilidiophoran Lineus sanguineus and the hoplonemertean Nemertopsis pamelaroeae. Using these new and publicly available transcriptomes, we investigated the molecular evolution of six selected toxin gene families. In addition, we also characterized in silico the toxin genes fo

SUBMITTER: Sonoda GG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10674772 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature