Citation

Palagi A, Koh JM, Leblanc M, Wilson D, Dutertre S, King GF, Nicholson GM, Escoubas P. J. Proteomics 2013; 80: 292-310.

Affiliation

VenomeTech, 473 Route des Dolines - Villa 3, Valbonne 06560, France.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jprot.2013.01.002

PMID

23352897

Abstract

Spider venoms represent vast sources of bioactive molecules whose diversity remains largely unknown. Indeed, only a small subset of species have been studied out of the ~43,000 extant spider species. The present study investigated inter- and intra-species venom complexity in 18 samples collected from a variety of lethal Australian funnel-web spiders (Mygalomorphae: Hexathelidae: Atracinae) using C4 reversed-phase separation coupled to offline MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (LC-MALDI-TOF MS). An in-depth investigation focusing on four atracine venoms (male Illawarra wisharti, male and female Hadronyche cerberea, and female H. infensa Toowoomba) revealed, on average, ~800 peptides in female venoms while male venoms contained ~400 peptides, distributed across most HPLC fractions. This is significantly higher than previous estimates of peptide expression in mygalomorph venoms. These venoms also showed distinct intersexual as well as intra- and inter-species variation in peptide masses. Construction of both 3D and 2D contour plots revealed that peptide mass distributions in all 18 venoms were centered around the 3200-5400 m/z range and to a lesser extent the 6600-8200 m/z range, consistent with previously described hexatoxins. These findings highlight the extensive diversity of peptide toxins in Australian funnel-web spider venoms that that can be exploited as novel therapeutic and biopesticide lead molecules.

Language: en