Composition and toxicity of venom produced by araneophagous white-tailed spiders (Lamponidae: Lampona sp.).

ABSTRACT: Prey-specialised spiders are adapted to capture specific prey items, including dangerous prey. The venoms of specialists are often prey-specific and less complex than those of generalists, but their venom composition has not been studied in detail. Here, we investigated the venom of the prey-specialised white-tailed spiders (Lamponidae: Lampona), which utilise specialised morphological and behavioural adaptations to capture spider prey. We analysed the venom composition using proteo-transcriptomics and taxon-specific toxicity using venom bioassays. Our analysis identified 208 putative toxin sequences, comprising 103 peptides < 10 kDa and 105 proteins > 10 kDa. Most peptides belonged to one of two families characterised by scaffolds containing eight or ten cysteine residues. Toxin-like prot

SUBMITTER: Michalek O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9751281 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature