Novel venom peptides from the cone snail Conus pulicarius discovered through next-generation sequencing of its venom duct transcriptome.

ABSTRACT: The venom peptides (i.e., conotoxins or conopeptides) that species in the genus Conus collectively produce are remarkably diverse, estimated to be around 50,000 to 140,000, but the pace of discovery and characterization of these peptides have been rather slow. To date, only a minor fraction have been identified and studied. However, the advent of next-generation DNA sequencing technologies has opened up opportunities for expediting the exploration of this diversity. The whole transcriptome of a venom duct from the vermivorous marine snail C. pulicarius was sequenced using the 454 sequencing platform. Analysis of the data set resulted in the identification of over eighty unique putative conopeptide sequences, the highest number discovered so far from a Conus venom duct transcriptome. More i

SUBMITTER: Lluisma AO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4286325 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature