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Towards the Exploration and Evolution of Insulin-Derived Venoms in Actiniaria (Sea anemones)
Version 1
: Received: 8 February 2024 / Approved: 9 February 2024 / Online: 9 February 2024 (14:03:20 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Delgado, A.; Sozanski, K.S.; Daly, M. Towards the Exploration and Evolution of Insulin-like Venoms in Actiniaria (Sea anemones). Mar. Drugs 2024, 22, 136. Delgado, A.; Sozanski, K.S.; Daly, M. Towards the Exploration and Evolution of Insulin-like Venoms in Actiniaria (Sea anemones). Mar. Drugs 2024, 22, 136.
Abstract
Recent studies have elucidated the diversity of genes encoding venom in sea anemones. However, most of those genes are yet to be explored in an evolutionary context. Insulin is a common peptide across metazoans and has been coopted into a predatory venom in many venomous lineages. In this study, we focus on the diversity of insulin-derived venoms in sea anemones and on elucidating their evolutionary history. We sourced data for 34 species of sea anemones and found sequences belonging to two venom families that have Insulin PFAM annotations (Cono-Insulin, VP302). Our findings show that both families have undergone duplication events. Members of each of the independently evolving clades have consistent predicted protein structures and distinct dN/dS values. Our work also shows that VP302 is part of a multidomain venom contig and has experienced a secondary gain into the venom system of cuticulate sea anemones.
Keywords
Insulin-like peptides; Cono-toxins; Venom; Venomics; Toxins; Transcriptome; Sea anemone; Selection; Actinaria; Cnidaria
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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