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Buzz Kill: Function and Proteomic Composition of Venom from the Giant Assassin Fly Dolopus genitalis (Diptera: Asilidae)
Assassin flies (Diptera: Asilidae) inject paralysing venom into insect prey during hunting, but their venoms are poorly characterised in comparison to those produced by spiders, scorpions, or hymenopteran insects. Here we investigated the composition of the venom of the giant Australian assassin fly...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6266666/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30400621 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins10110456 |
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author | Walker, Andrew A. Dobson, James Jin, Jiayi Robinson, Samuel D. Herzig, Volker Vetter, Irina King, Glenn F. Fry, Bryan G. |
author_facet | Walker, Andrew A. Dobson, James Jin, Jiayi Robinson, Samuel D. Herzig, Volker Vetter, Irina King, Glenn F. Fry, Bryan G. |
author_sort | Walker, Andrew A. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Assassin flies (Diptera: Asilidae) inject paralysing venom into insect prey during hunting, but their venoms are poorly characterised in comparison to those produced by spiders, scorpions, or hymenopteran insects. Here we investigated the composition of the venom of the giant Australian assassin fly Dolopus genitalis using a combination of insect microinjection assays, calcium imaging assays of mammalian sensory neurons, proteomics and transcriptomics. Injection of venom into blowflies (Lucilia cuprina) produced rapid contractile paralysis (PD(50) at 1 min = 3.1 μg per fly) followed by death, and also caused immediate activation of mouse dorsal root ganglion neurons (at 50 ng/μL). These results are consistent with venom use for both prey capture and predator deterrence. Paragon searches of tandem mass spectra of venom against a translated thoracic gland RNA-Seq database identified 122 polypeptides present in the venom, including six linear and 21 disulfide-rich peptides. Some of these disulfide-rich peptides display sequence homology to peptide families independently recruited into other animal venoms, including inhibitor cystine knots, cystine-stabilised α/β defensins, Kazal peptides, and von Willebrand factors. Numerous enzymes are present in the venom, including 35 proteases of the S1 family, proteases of the S10, C1A, M12A, M14, and M17 families, and phosphatase, amylase, hydrolase, nuclease, and dehydrogenase-like proteins. These results highlight convergent molecular evolution between the assassin flies and other venomous animals, as well as the unique and rich molecular composition of assassin fly venom. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6266666 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-62666662018-12-07 Buzz Kill: Function and Proteomic Composition of Venom from the Giant Assassin Fly Dolopus genitalis (Diptera: Asilidae) Walker, Andrew A. Dobson, James Jin, Jiayi Robinson, Samuel D. Herzig, Volker Vetter, Irina King, Glenn F. Fry, Bryan G. Toxins (Basel) Article Assassin flies (Diptera: Asilidae) inject paralysing venom into insect prey during hunting, but their venoms are poorly characterised in comparison to those produced by spiders, scorpions, or hymenopteran insects. Here we investigated the composition of the venom of the giant Australian assassin fly Dolopus genitalis using a combination of insect microinjection assays, calcium imaging assays of mammalian sensory neurons, proteomics and transcriptomics. Injection of venom into blowflies (Lucilia cuprina) produced rapid contractile paralysis (PD(50) at 1 min = 3.1 μg per fly) followed by death, and also caused immediate activation of mouse dorsal root ganglion neurons (at 50 ng/μL). These results are consistent with venom use for both prey capture and predator deterrence. Paragon searches of tandem mass spectra of venom against a translated thoracic gland RNA-Seq database identified 122 polypeptides present in the venom, including six linear and 21 disulfide-rich peptides. Some of these disulfide-rich peptides display sequence homology to peptide families independently recruited into other animal venoms, including inhibitor cystine knots, cystine-stabilised α/β defensins, Kazal peptides, and von Willebrand factors. Numerous enzymes are present in the venom, including 35 proteases of the S1 family, proteases of the S10, C1A, M12A, M14, and M17 families, and phosphatase, amylase, hydrolase, nuclease, and dehydrogenase-like proteins. These results highlight convergent molecular evolution between the assassin flies and other venomous animals, as well as the unique and rich molecular composition of assassin fly venom. MDPI 2018-11-05 /pmc/articles/PMC6266666/ /pubmed/30400621 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins10110456 Text en © 2018 by the authors. 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 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Walker, Andrew A. Dobson, James Jin, Jiayi Robinson, Samuel D. Herzig, Volker Vetter, Irina King, Glenn F. Fry, Bryan G. Buzz Kill: Function and Proteomic Composition of Venom from the Giant Assassin Fly Dolopus genitalis (Diptera: Asilidae) |
title | Buzz Kill: Function and Proteomic Composition of Venom from the Giant Assassin Fly Dolopus genitalis (Diptera: Asilidae) |
title_full | Buzz Kill: Function and Proteomic Composition of Venom from the Giant Assassin Fly Dolopus genitalis (Diptera: Asilidae) |
title_fullStr | Buzz Kill: Function and Proteomic Composition of Venom from the Giant Assassin Fly Dolopus genitalis (Diptera: Asilidae) |
title_full_unstemmed | Buzz Kill: Function and Proteomic Composition of Venom from the Giant Assassin Fly Dolopus genitalis (Diptera: Asilidae) |
title_short | Buzz Kill: Function and Proteomic Composition of Venom from the Giant Assassin Fly Dolopus genitalis (Diptera: Asilidae) |
title_sort | buzz kill: function and proteomic composition of venom from the giant assassin fly dolopus genitalis (diptera: asilidae) |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6266666/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30400621 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins10110456 |
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