A comprehensive portrait of the venom of the giant red bull ant, Myrmecia gulosa , reveals a hyperdiverse hymenopteran toxin gene family

Science Advances
Samuel D RobinsonEivind A B Undheim

Abstract

Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are diverse and ubiquitous, and their ability to sting is familiar to many of us. However, their venoms remain largely unstudied. We provide the first comprehensive characterization of a polypeptidic ant venom, that of the giant red bull ant, Myrmecia gulosa. We reveal a suite of novel peptides with a range of posttranslational modifications, including disulfide bond formation, dimerization, and glycosylation. One venom peptide has sequence features consistent with an epidermal growth factor fold, while the remaining peptides have features suggestive of a capacity to form amphipathic helices. We show that these peptides are derived from what appears to be a single, pharmacologically diverse, gene superfamily (aculeatoxins) that includes most venom peptides previously reported from the aculeate Hymenoptera. Two aculeatoxins purified from the venom were found to be capable of activating mammalian sensory neurons, consistent with the capacity to produce pain but via distinct mechanisms of action. Further investigation of the major venom peptide MIITX1-Mg1a revealed that it can also incapacitate arthropods, indicative of dual utility in both defense and predation. MIITX1-Mg1a accomplishes these functi...Continue Reading

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Citations

May 16, 2019·The Journal of Physiology·Mathilde R IsraelIrina Vetter
Aug 21, 2020·Proteomics·Andrew A WalkerGlenn F King
Sep 23, 2020·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Volker HerzigBryan G Fry
Mar 18, 2019·Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences : CMLS·Dhivya KumarStephen M King
Aug 7, 2020·Biochemical Society Transactions·Andrew A Walker
Aug 1, 2019·Toxins·Douglas Oscar Ceolin MarianoÁlvaro Rossan de Brandão Prieto-da-Silva
Sep 18, 2020·Science Advances·Edward K GildingThomas Durek
Jun 18, 2020·Biomedicines·Mathilde R IsraelThomas Durek
Dec 22, 2020·ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science·Axel TouchardChristophe Duplais
Apr 25, 2021·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Andrew A WalkerGlenn F King
May 11, 2021·Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences : CMLS·Timo JensenSamuel D Robinson
Jun 3, 2021·Clinical Reviews in Allergy & Immunology·Troy WanandyMichael D Wiese
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Nov 6, 2021·Nature Biomedical Engineering·Marcelo D T TorresCesar de la Fuente-Nunez
Aug 31, 2020·Toxicon : Official Journal of the International Society on Toxinology·Hilania V Dodou LimaGandhi Rádis-Baptista

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
amidation
dissection
fluorescence imaging

Software Mentioned

FLIPR TETRA
ProteinPilot
BBnorm ecc
Trinity
lite
GraphPad Prism
Trinity RSEM
prinseq
fqtrim
blastx

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