Meeting Abstract
This study investigates how venom genes evolved and the function of venom peptides in specific lineages of marine snails of the Terebridae. Terebrids, cone snails, and turrids make up the Conoidea superfamily of predatory marine snails. Terebrid venom peptides (teretoxins), are similar to the peptides of the more well studied sister clade, cone snails (Conus), but they also have distinct differences. Both Conidae and Terebridae produce highly diverse biologically active compounds that are undergoing rapid evolution. However, given that cone snails and terebrids diverged in the Paleocene era, their venom peptides are different, suggesting new possibilities for elucidating venom evolution in predatory snails of the conoidea. Here we performed a molecular ecology study of the Terebridae family using transcritpomics, proteomics and population genetic strategies to identify comparative features of terebrids and to elucidate novel neuropeptide compounds for investigating cell signaling. A comparative analysis of ten terebrid transcriptomes identified several novel terebrid venom gene superfamilies. Interestingly, distribution of teretoxin gene super families varied between a single species collected from different locations indicating that teretoxin genes are differentially expressed both inter- and intraspecifically. Additionally, novel teretoxins were chemically synthesized and analyzed for function using bioactive assays of potential prey species (polychaete worms and fish). Our results suggest that the diversity of toxin gene superfamilies has evolutionary implications and sheds light on novel compounds for manipulating cellular physiology as it pertains to drug discovery.
