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Venom components from Citharischius crawshayi spider (Family Theraphosidae): exploring transcriptome, venomics, and function

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Abstract

Despite strong efforts, knowledge about the composition of the venom of many spider species remains very limited. This work is the first report of transcriptome and venom analysis of the African spider Citharischius crawshayi. We used combined protocols of transcriptomics, venomics, and biological assays to characterize the venom and genes expressed in venom glands. A cDNA library of the venom glands was constructed and used to generate expressed sequence tags (ESTs). Sequence comparisons from 236 ESTs revealed interesting and unique sequences, corresponding to toxin-like and other components. Mass spectrometrical analysis of venom fractions showed more than 600 molecular masses, some of which showed toxic activity on crickets and modulated sodium currents in DmNav1 and Nav1.6 channels as expressed in Xenopus oocytes. Taken together, our results may contribute to a better understanding of the cellular processes involved in the transcriptome and help us to discover new components from spider venom glands with therapeutic potential.

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Abbreviations

Clone Cic:

Nucleotide or amino acid sequence deduced from cDNA library from venom glands of spider C. crawshayi

Fraction Cic:

Fraction from HPLC separation of venom from spider C. crawshayi

EST:

Expressed sequence tags

ICK:

Inhibitor cystine knot-motif

TFA:

Trifluoroacetic acid

MALDI-TOF/TOF:

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight/time-of-flight mass spectrometer

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Thomas Vandendriessche for the technical assistance on the milking of spiders. This work was supported in part by grants K.U. Leuven (OT/05/64), G.330.06 from the Fund for Scientific Research (FWO)-Flanders and Belgian Federal Science Policy IAP, P6/31 (Interuniversity attraction Poles Program- Belgian State- Belgian Science Policy) and Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from K.U. Leuven to EDG.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Toxicology, University of Leuven, Campus Gasthuisberg, O&N2, Herestraat 49, PO Box 922, 3000, Louvain, Belgium

    Elia Diego-García, Steve Peigneur, Sarah Debaveye & Jan Tytgat

  2. Laboratory of Protein Phosphorylation and Proteomics, University of Leuven, Campus Gasthuisberg, O&N1, Herestraat 49, PO Box 901, 3000, Louvain, Belgium

    Etienne Waelkens

  3. Prometa and BioMacs, Louvain, Belgium

    Etienne Waelkens

Authors
  1. Elia Diego-García
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  2. Steve Peigneur
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  3. Etienne Waelkens
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  4. Sarah Debaveye
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  5. Jan Tytgat
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jan Tytgat.

Additional information

The gene sequences reported in this paper have been submitted to GenBank, the accession numbers corresponding GU170865 to GU170901.

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Diego-García, E., Peigneur, S., Waelkens, E. et al. Venom components from Citharischius crawshayi spider (Family Theraphosidae): exploring transcriptome, venomics, and function. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 67, 2799–2813 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-010-0359-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-010-0359-x

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