Snake venomics of crotalus tigris: the minimalist toxin arsenal of the deadliest neartic rattlesnake venom: evolutionary clues for generating a pan-specific antivenom against crotalid type II venoms

artículo (arbitrado)-- Universidad de Costa Rica, Instituto de Investigaciones Clodomiro Picado. 2012. This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Journal of Proteome Research, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work seehttp://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/pr201021dWe report the proteomic and antivenomic characterization of Crotalus tigris venom. This venom exhibits the highest lethality for mice among rattlesnakes and the simplest toxin proteome reported to date. The venom proteome of C. tigris comprises 7–8 gene products from 6 toxin families: the presynaptic β-neurotoxic heterodimeric PLA2, Mojave toxin, and two serine proteinases comprise, respectively, 66% and 27% of the C. tigris toxin arsenal, whereas a VEGF-like protein, a CRISP molecule, a medium-sized disintegrin, and 1–2 PIII-SVMPs, each represents 0.1–5% of the total venom proteome. This toxin profile really explains the systemic neuro- and myotoxic effects observed in envenomated animals. In addition, we found that venom lethality of C. tigris and other North American rattlesnake type II venoms correlates with the concentration of Mojave toxin A subunit, supporting the view that the neurotoxic venom phenotype of crotalid type II venoms may be described as a single-allele adaptation. Our data suggest that the evolutionary trend towards neurotoxicity, which has been also reported for the South American rattlesnakes, may have resulted by paedomorphism. The ability of an experimental antivenom to effectively immunodeplete proteins from the type II venoms of C. tigris, C. horridus, C. oreganus helleri, C. scutulatus scutulatus, and S. catenatus catenatus, indicated the feasibility of generating a pan-American anti-Crotalus type II antivenom, suggested by the identification of shared evolutionary trends among South American and North American Crotalus.Financed by grants BFU2010-17373 (from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Madrid, Spain), CRUSA-CSIC (project 2009CR0021), and PROMETEO/2010/005 from the Generalitat Valenciana (Valencia, Spain), NIH/VIPER resource grant (#5 P40 RR018300-09), and Texas A&M University-Kingsville.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Instituto Clodomiro Picado (ICP

Adaptive Evolution of the Venom-Targeted vWF Protein in Opossums that Eat Pitvipers

The rapid evolution of venom toxin genes is often explained as the result of a biochemical arms race between venomous animals and their prey. However, it is not clear that an arms race analogy is appropriate in this context because there is no published evidence for rapid evolution in genes that might confer toxin resistance among routinely envenomed species. Here we report such evidence from an unusual predator-prey relationship between opossums (Marsupialia: Didelphidae) and pitvipers (Serpentes: Crotalinae). In particular, we found high ratios of replacement to silent substitutions in the gene encoding von Willebrand Factor (vWF), a venom-targeted hemostatic blood protein, in a clade of opossums known to eat pitvipers and to be resistant to their hemorrhagic venom. Observed amino-acid substitutions in venom-resistant opossums include changes in net charge and hydrophobicity that are hypothesized to weaken the bond between vWF and one of its toxic snake-venom ligands, the C-type lectin-like protein botrocetin. Our results provide the first example of rapid adaptive evolution in any venom-targeted molecule, and they support the notion that an evolutionary arms race might be driving the rapid evolution of snake venoms. However, in the arms race implied by our results, venomous snakes are prey, and their venom has a correspondingly defensive function in addition to its usual trophic role

Strategies in 'snake venomics' aiming at an integrative view of compositional, functional, and immunological characteristics of venoms

This work offers a general overview on the evolving strategies for the proteomic analysis of snake venoms, and discusses how these may be combined through diverse experimental approaches with the goal of achieving a more comprehensive knowledge on the compositional, toxic, and immunological characteristics of venoms. Some recent developments in this field are summarized, highlighting how strategies have evolved from the mere cataloguing of venom components (proteomics/venomics), to a broader exploration of their immunological (antivenomics) and functional (toxicovenomics) characteristics. Altogether, the combination of these complementary strategies is helping to build a wider, more integrative view of the life-threatening protein cocktails produced by venomous snakes, responsible for thousands of deaths every year.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad/[BFU2013-42833-P]//EspañaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Instituto Clodomiro Picado (ICP