A Comprehensive Multi-Omic Approach Reveals a Relatively Simple Venom in a Diet Generalist, the Northern Short-Tailed Shrew, Blarina brevicauda.

ABSTRACT: Animals that use venom to feed on a wide diversity of prey may evolve a complex mixture of toxins to target a variety of physiological processes and prey-defense mechanisms. Blarina brevicauda, the northern short-tailed shrew, is one of few venomous mammals, and is also known to eat evolutionarily divergent prey. Despite their complex diet, earlier proteomic and transcriptomic studies of this shrew's venom have only identified two venom proteins. Here, we investigated with comprehensive molecular approaches whether B. brevicauda venom is more complex than previously understood. We generated de novo assemblies of a B. brevicauda genome and submaxillary-gland transcriptome, as well as sequenced the salivary proteome. Our findings show that B. brevicauda's venom composition is simple relative

SUBMITTER: Hanf ZR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7486961 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature