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Identification and Expression of the Conotoxin Homologous Genes in the Giant Triton Snail (Charonia tritonis)

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Abstract

Conotoxin (CTX) is a small peptide toxin, and plays crucial role in anesthetizes prey, preys and defends competitors. Charonia tritonis is the natural predator of the crown of thorns starfish (CoTS) and the protector of coral reefs. It plays an important role in the coral reef ecosystem. However, the types of toxins produced by tritons and the molecular mechanisms of toxin secretion of C. tritonis are unknown. In the present study, the four conotoxin homologous genes (CTXs) from C. tritonis were identified. Species and conotoxin superfamily phylogenetic tree indicated that CTX-1 (CL2216.Contig2) and CTX-4 (Unigene 58438_All) belong to the C superfamily, CTX-2 (Unigene 66414_All) belong to the V superfamily, and CTX-3 (Unigene 21408_All) belong to the B1 superfamily. CTXs were highly expressed in salivary gland, liver and digestive gland. The predation control experiment revealed that the expressions of CTXs were significantly different in salivary gland, liver and digestive gland. The results indicated that CTXs may participate in the process of C. tritonis predating CoTs, and provided a scientific basis for further studying the toxins secretion mechanism of C. tritonis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42176129), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA13020206), the Key Special Project for Introduced Talents Team of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (No. GML2019ZD0402), and the Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology (No. 2020B1212060058).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-Resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Huixia Jia, Gege Zhang, Hua Zhang, Gaoyou Yao, Maoxian He & Wenguang Liu

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Huixia Jia, Gege Zhang & Gaoyou Yao

  3. Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, 511458, China

    Hua Zhang, Maoxian He & Wenguang Liu

  4. Sansha Marine and Fisheries Bureau, Sansha, 573199, China

    Chenglong Zhang

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  1. Huixia Jia
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  2. Gege Zhang
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  4. Hua Zhang
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Correspondence to Wenguang Liu.

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Jia, H., Zhang, G., Zhang, C. et al. Identification and Expression of the Conotoxin Homologous Genes in the Giant Triton Snail (Charonia tritonis). J. Ocean Univ. China 22, 213–220 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-023-5147-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-023-5147-y

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