A comprehensive portrait of the venom of the giant red bull ant, Myrmecia gulosa, reveals a hyperdiverse hymenopteran toxin gene family.

ABSTRACT: Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are diverse and ubiquitous, and their ability to sting is familiar to many of us. However, their venoms remain largely unstudied. We provide the first comprehensive characterization of a polypeptidic ant venom, that of the giant red bull ant, Myrmecia gulosa. We reveal a suite of novel peptides with a range of posttranslational modifications, including disulfide bond formation, dimerization, and glycosylation. One venom peptide has sequence features consistent with an epidermal growth factor fold, while the remaining peptides have features suggestive of a capacity to form amphipathic helices. We show that these peptides are derived from what appears to be a single, pharmacologically diverse, gene superfamily (aculeatoxins) that includes most venom pept

SUBMITTER: Robinson SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6135544 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature