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Crown-of-thorns starfish spines secrete defence proteins
BACKGROUND: The crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS; Acanthaster species) is a slow-moving corallivore protected by an extensive array of long, sharp toxic spines. Envenomation can result in nausea, numbness, vomiting, joint aches and sometimes paralysis. Small molecule saponins and the plancitoxin prote...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10448888/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37637177 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15689 |
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author | Hillberg, Adam K. Smith, Meaghan K. Lausen, Blake S. Suwansa-ard, Saowaros Johnston, Ryan Mitu, Shahida A. MacDonald, Leah E. Zhao, Min Motti, Cherie A. Wang, Tianfang Elizur, Abigail Nakashima, Keisuke Satoh, Noriyuki Cummins, Scott F. |
author_facet | Hillberg, Adam K. Smith, Meaghan K. Lausen, Blake S. Suwansa-ard, Saowaros Johnston, Ryan Mitu, Shahida A. MacDonald, Leah E. Zhao, Min Motti, Cherie A. Wang, Tianfang Elizur, Abigail Nakashima, Keisuke Satoh, Noriyuki Cummins, Scott F. |
author_sort | Hillberg, Adam K. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS; Acanthaster species) is a slow-moving corallivore protected by an extensive array of long, sharp toxic spines. Envenomation can result in nausea, numbness, vomiting, joint aches and sometimes paralysis. Small molecule saponins and the plancitoxin proteins have been implicated in COTS toxicity. METHODS: Brine shrimp lethality assays were used to confirm the secretion of spine toxin biomolecules. Histological analysis, followed by spine-derived proteomics helped to explain the source and identity of proteins, while quantitative RNA-sequencing and phylogeny confirmed target gene expression and relative conservation, respectively. RESULTS: We demonstrate the lethality of COTS spine secreted biomolecules on brine shrimp, including significant toxicity using aboral spine semi-purifications of >10 kDa (p > 0.05, 9.82 µg/ml), supporting the presence of secreted proteins as toxins. Ultrastructure observations of the COTS aboral spine showed the presence of pores that could facilitate the distribution of secreted proteins. Subsequent purification and mass spectrometry analysis of spine-derived proteins identified numerous secretory proteins, including plancitoxins, as well as those with relatively high gene expression in spines, including phospholipase A2, protease inhibitor 16-like protein, ependymin-related proteins and those uncharacterized. Some secretory proteins (e.g., vitellogenin and deleted in malignant brain tumor protein 1) were not highly expressed in spine tissue, yet the spine may serve as a storage or release site. This study contributes to our understanding of the COTS through functional, ultrastructural and proteomic analysis of aboral spines. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10448888 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-104488882023-08-25 Crown-of-thorns starfish spines secrete defence proteins Hillberg, Adam K. Smith, Meaghan K. Lausen, Blake S. Suwansa-ard, Saowaros Johnston, Ryan Mitu, Shahida A. MacDonald, Leah E. Zhao, Min Motti, Cherie A. Wang, Tianfang Elizur, Abigail Nakashima, Keisuke Satoh, Noriyuki Cummins, Scott F. PeerJ Marine Biology BACKGROUND: The crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS; Acanthaster species) is a slow-moving corallivore protected by an extensive array of long, sharp toxic spines. Envenomation can result in nausea, numbness, vomiting, joint aches and sometimes paralysis. Small molecule saponins and the plancitoxin proteins have been implicated in COTS toxicity. METHODS: Brine shrimp lethality assays were used to confirm the secretion of spine toxin biomolecules. Histological analysis, followed by spine-derived proteomics helped to explain the source and identity of proteins, while quantitative RNA-sequencing and phylogeny confirmed target gene expression and relative conservation, respectively. RESULTS: We demonstrate the lethality of COTS spine secreted biomolecules on brine shrimp, including significant toxicity using aboral spine semi-purifications of >10 kDa (p > 0.05, 9.82 µg/ml), supporting the presence of secreted proteins as toxins. Ultrastructure observations of the COTS aboral spine showed the presence of pores that could facilitate the distribution of secreted proteins. Subsequent purification and mass spectrometry analysis of spine-derived proteins identified numerous secretory proteins, including plancitoxins, as well as those with relatively high gene expression in spines, including phospholipase A2, protease inhibitor 16-like protein, ependymin-related proteins and those uncharacterized. Some secretory proteins (e.g., vitellogenin and deleted in malignant brain tumor protein 1) were not highly expressed in spine tissue, yet the spine may serve as a storage or release site. This study contributes to our understanding of the COTS through functional, ultrastructural and proteomic analysis of aboral spines. PeerJ Inc. 2023-08-21 /pmc/articles/PMC10448888/ /pubmed/37637177 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15689 Text en ©2023 Hillberg et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. |
spellingShingle | Marine Biology Hillberg, Adam K. Smith, Meaghan K. Lausen, Blake S. Suwansa-ard, Saowaros Johnston, Ryan Mitu, Shahida A. MacDonald, Leah E. Zhao, Min Motti, Cherie A. Wang, Tianfang Elizur, Abigail Nakashima, Keisuke Satoh, Noriyuki Cummins, Scott F. Crown-of-thorns starfish spines secrete defence proteins |
title | Crown-of-thorns starfish spines secrete defence proteins |
title_full | Crown-of-thorns starfish spines secrete defence proteins |
title_fullStr | Crown-of-thorns starfish spines secrete defence proteins |
title_full_unstemmed | Crown-of-thorns starfish spines secrete defence proteins |
title_short | Crown-of-thorns starfish spines secrete defence proteins |
title_sort | crown-of-thorns starfish spines secrete defence proteins |
topic | Marine Biology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10448888/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37637177 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15689 |
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