Abstract
A proteomic and transcriptomic comparative analysis of the venoms of three Atheris species (A. squamigera, A. nitschei and A. chlorechis) was carried out by size exclusion liquid chromatography, gel electrophoresis, mass spectrometry, and mRNA sequencing. The improved proteomic profiling utilised in this work was combined with transcript studies, advancing our insights into venom composition, protein distribution and inter-species variation among the three bush vipers. Crude venoms of all three samples contained at least 10–20 protein components, ranging in size from ≤ 3 to > 98 kDa. Both approaches yielded converging overall information, pointing to phospholipases, disintegrins, serine proteases and metalloproteases as the major toxin classes, which are likely to explain the local and systemic symptoms observed in envenomation by Atheris genus. Being considered as the main factors involved in the distinct venom-induced pathologies, these identified snake venom proteins are of particular interest in terms of understanding their physiological and biological function as well as for their contribution in potential medical treatments.
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Abbreviations
- A. chlorechis :
-
Atheris chlorechis
- A. nitschei :
-
Atheris Nitschei
- A. squamigera :
-
Atheris squamigera
- BCA:
-
Bicinchoninic acid
- BLAST:
-
Basic Local Alignment Search Tool
- CDD:
-
Conserved domain database
- cDNA:
-
Complementary DNA
- CHCA:
-
Alpha-cyano-5-hydroxycinnamic acid
- MALDI-TOF:
-
Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization, time-of-flight
- mRNA:
-
Messenger RNA
- MS:
-
Mass spectrometry
- NCBI:
-
National Centre of Biotechnology Information
- NUP:
-
Nested universal primer
- PBS:
-
Phosphate buffered saline
- PCR:
-
Polymerase chain reaction
- pHpG:
-
Poly-histidine and poly-glycine
- RACE:
-
Rapid Amplifiction of cDNA Ends
- SDS-PAGE:
-
Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
- SEC:
-
Size exclusion chromatography
- SMART:
-
Switching Mechanism At 5′ end of RNA Transcript
- SVMP:
-
Snake venom metalloproteinases
- SVSP:
-
Snake venom serine proteinases
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Acknowledgements
The project was kindly supported by the Science Foundation of Education Department of Fujian Province, China (Grant No. JAT160247), the Young Talent Project of Health Department of Fujian Province, China (Grant No. 2017-1-69) and the Joint Funds for the innovation of science and Technology, Fujian province (Grant No. 2016Y9048).
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Wang, H., Chen, X., König, E. et al. Comparative Profiling of Three Atheris Snake Venoms: A. squamigera, A. nitschei and A. chlorechis. Protein J 37, 353–360 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10930-018-9781-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10930-018-9781-y