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Antimicrobial Peptide Arsenal Predicted from the Venom Gland Transcriptome of the Tropical Trap-Jaw Ant Odontomachus chelifer

With about 13,000 known species, ants are the most abundant venomous insects. Their venom consists of polypeptides, enzymes, alkaloids, biogenic amines, formic acid, and hydrocarbons. In this study, we investigated, using in silico techniques, the peptides composing a putative antimicrobial arsenal...

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Autores principales: Menk, Josilene J., Matuhara, Yan E., Sebestyen-França, Henrique, Henrique-Silva, Flávio, Ferro, Milene, Rodrigues, Renata S., Santos-Júnior, Célio D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10221683/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37235379
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins15050345
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author Menk, Josilene J.
Matuhara, Yan E.
Sebestyen-França, Henrique
Henrique-Silva, Flávio
Ferro, Milene
Rodrigues, Renata S.
Santos-Júnior, Célio D.
author_facet Menk, Josilene J.
Matuhara, Yan E.
Sebestyen-França, Henrique
Henrique-Silva, Flávio
Ferro, Milene
Rodrigues, Renata S.
Santos-Júnior, Célio D.
author_sort Menk, Josilene J.
collection PubMed
description With about 13,000 known species, ants are the most abundant venomous insects. Their venom consists of polypeptides, enzymes, alkaloids, biogenic amines, formic acid, and hydrocarbons. In this study, we investigated, using in silico techniques, the peptides composing a putative antimicrobial arsenal from the venom gland of the neotropical trap-jaw ant Odontomachus chelifer. Focusing on transcripts from the body and venom gland of this insect, it was possible to determine the gland secretome, which contained about 1022 peptides with putative signal peptides. The majority of these peptides (75.5%) were unknown, not matching any reference database, motivating us to extract functional insights via machine learning-based techniques. With several complementary methodologies, we investigated the existence of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in the venom gland of O. chelifer, finding 112 non-redundant candidates. Candidate AMPs were predicted to be more globular and hemolytic than the remaining peptides in the secretome. There is evidence of transcription for 97% of AMP candidates across the same ant genus, with one of them also verified as translated, thus supporting our findings. Most of these potential antimicrobial sequences (94.8%) matched transcripts from the ant’s body, indicating their role not solely as venom toxins.
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spelling pubmed-102216832023-05-28 Antimicrobial Peptide Arsenal Predicted from the Venom Gland Transcriptome of the Tropical Trap-Jaw Ant Odontomachus chelifer Menk, Josilene J. Matuhara, Yan E. Sebestyen-França, Henrique Henrique-Silva, Flávio Ferro, Milene Rodrigues, Renata S. Santos-Júnior, Célio D. Toxins (Basel) Article With about 13,000 known species, ants are the most abundant venomous insects. Their venom consists of polypeptides, enzymes, alkaloids, biogenic amines, formic acid, and hydrocarbons. In this study, we investigated, using in silico techniques, the peptides composing a putative antimicrobial arsenal from the venom gland of the neotropical trap-jaw ant Odontomachus chelifer. Focusing on transcripts from the body and venom gland of this insect, it was possible to determine the gland secretome, which contained about 1022 peptides with putative signal peptides. The majority of these peptides (75.5%) were unknown, not matching any reference database, motivating us to extract functional insights via machine learning-based techniques. With several complementary methodologies, we investigated the existence of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in the venom gland of O. chelifer, finding 112 non-redundant candidates. Candidate AMPs were predicted to be more globular and hemolytic than the remaining peptides in the secretome. There is evidence of transcription for 97% of AMP candidates across the same ant genus, with one of them also verified as translated, thus supporting our findings. Most of these potential antimicrobial sequences (94.8%) matched transcripts from the ant’s body, indicating their role not solely as venom toxins. MDPI 2023-05-18 /pmc/articles/PMC10221683/ /pubmed/37235379 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins15050345 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Menk, Josilene J.
Matuhara, Yan E.
Sebestyen-França, Henrique
Henrique-Silva, Flávio
Ferro, Milene
Rodrigues, Renata S.
Santos-Júnior, Célio D.
Antimicrobial Peptide Arsenal Predicted from the Venom Gland Transcriptome of the Tropical Trap-Jaw Ant Odontomachus chelifer
title Antimicrobial Peptide Arsenal Predicted from the Venom Gland Transcriptome of the Tropical Trap-Jaw Ant Odontomachus chelifer
title_full Antimicrobial Peptide Arsenal Predicted from the Venom Gland Transcriptome of the Tropical Trap-Jaw Ant Odontomachus chelifer
title_fullStr Antimicrobial Peptide Arsenal Predicted from the Venom Gland Transcriptome of the Tropical Trap-Jaw Ant Odontomachus chelifer
title_full_unstemmed Antimicrobial Peptide Arsenal Predicted from the Venom Gland Transcriptome of the Tropical Trap-Jaw Ant Odontomachus chelifer
title_short Antimicrobial Peptide Arsenal Predicted from the Venom Gland Transcriptome of the Tropical Trap-Jaw Ant Odontomachus chelifer
title_sort antimicrobial peptide arsenal predicted from the venom gland transcriptome of the tropical trap-jaw ant odontomachus chelifer
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10221683/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37235379
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins15050345
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