Cargando…
Phylogeny-Guided Selection of Priority Groups for Venom Bioprospecting: Harvesting Toxin Sequences in Tarantulas as a Case Study
Animal venoms are promising sources of novel drug leads, but their translational potential is hampered by the low success rate of earlier biodiscovery programs, in part reflecting the narrow selection of targets for investigation. To increase the number of lead candidates, here we discuss a phylogen...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2019
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6784122/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31450685 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins11090488 |
_version_ | 1783457695265718272 |
---|---|
author | Lüddecke, Tim Vilcinskas, Andreas Lemke, Sarah |
author_facet | Lüddecke, Tim Vilcinskas, Andreas Lemke, Sarah |
author_sort | Lüddecke, Tim |
collection | PubMed |
description | Animal venoms are promising sources of novel drug leads, but their translational potential is hampered by the low success rate of earlier biodiscovery programs, in part reflecting the narrow selection of targets for investigation. To increase the number of lead candidates, here we discuss a phylogeny-guided approach for the rational selection of venomous taxa, using tarantulas (family Theraphosidae) as a case study. We found that previous biodiscovery programs have prioritized the three subfamilies Ornithoctoninae, Selenocosmiinae, and Theraphosinae, which provide almost all of the toxin sequences currently available in public databases. The remaining subfamilies are poorly represented, if at all. These overlooked subfamilies include several that form entire clades of the theraphosid life tree, such as the subfamilies Eumenophorinae, Harpactirinae, and Stromatopelminae, indicating that biodiversity space has not been covered effectively for venom biodiscovery in Theraphosidae. Focusing on these underrepresented taxa will increase the likelihood that promising candidates with novel structures and mechanisms of action can be identified in future bioprospecting programs. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6784122 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-67841222019-10-16 Phylogeny-Guided Selection of Priority Groups for Venom Bioprospecting: Harvesting Toxin Sequences in Tarantulas as a Case Study Lüddecke, Tim Vilcinskas, Andreas Lemke, Sarah Toxins (Basel) Communication Animal venoms are promising sources of novel drug leads, but their translational potential is hampered by the low success rate of earlier biodiscovery programs, in part reflecting the narrow selection of targets for investigation. To increase the number of lead candidates, here we discuss a phylogeny-guided approach for the rational selection of venomous taxa, using tarantulas (family Theraphosidae) as a case study. We found that previous biodiscovery programs have prioritized the three subfamilies Ornithoctoninae, Selenocosmiinae, and Theraphosinae, which provide almost all of the toxin sequences currently available in public databases. The remaining subfamilies are poorly represented, if at all. These overlooked subfamilies include several that form entire clades of the theraphosid life tree, such as the subfamilies Eumenophorinae, Harpactirinae, and Stromatopelminae, indicating that biodiversity space has not been covered effectively for venom biodiscovery in Theraphosidae. Focusing on these underrepresented taxa will increase the likelihood that promising candidates with novel structures and mechanisms of action can be identified in future bioprospecting programs. MDPI 2019-08-25 /pmc/articles/PMC6784122/ /pubmed/31450685 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins11090488 Text en © 2019 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 | Communication Lüddecke, Tim Vilcinskas, Andreas Lemke, Sarah Phylogeny-Guided Selection of Priority Groups for Venom Bioprospecting: Harvesting Toxin Sequences in Tarantulas as a Case Study |
title | Phylogeny-Guided Selection of Priority Groups for Venom Bioprospecting: Harvesting Toxin Sequences in Tarantulas as a Case Study |
title_full | Phylogeny-Guided Selection of Priority Groups for Venom Bioprospecting: Harvesting Toxin Sequences in Tarantulas as a Case Study |
title_fullStr | Phylogeny-Guided Selection of Priority Groups for Venom Bioprospecting: Harvesting Toxin Sequences in Tarantulas as a Case Study |
title_full_unstemmed | Phylogeny-Guided Selection of Priority Groups for Venom Bioprospecting: Harvesting Toxin Sequences in Tarantulas as a Case Study |
title_short | Phylogeny-Guided Selection of Priority Groups for Venom Bioprospecting: Harvesting Toxin Sequences in Tarantulas as a Case Study |
title_sort | phylogeny-guided selection of priority groups for venom bioprospecting: harvesting toxin sequences in tarantulas as a case study |
topic | Communication |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6784122/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31450685 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins11090488 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT luddecketim phylogenyguidedselectionofprioritygroupsforvenombioprospectingharvestingtoxinsequencesintarantulasasacasestudy AT vilcinskasandreas phylogenyguidedselectionofprioritygroupsforvenombioprospectingharvestingtoxinsequencesintarantulasasacasestudy AT lemkesarah phylogenyguidedselectionofprioritygroupsforvenombioprospectingharvestingtoxinsequencesintarantulasasacasestudy |