Global insight into N-glycome and N-glycoproteome of three most abundant snake venoms in Asia

Abstract

Snake venom is a complex cocktail including a variety of biological active proteins and proteinaceous components, which have considerable medical and pharmacological importance. N-Glycosylation is widely implicated as a common modification in numerous venom proteins and impacts the in vivo venomic functions. However, systematic survey of N-glycome and N-glycoproteome on snake venoms has not been undertaken. In this study, employing combination of N-glycomics and N-glycoproteomics strategies, we explored the N-glycosylation including both N-glycoproteins and N-glyco-chains in three venoms from Agkistrodon blomhoffii, Naja naja atra Cantor and Vipera russelii siamensis Smith, respectively, which are amongst the most abundant venomous snakes in Asia. As a result, numbers of N-glycoproteins and N-glycans were identified. However, the overlaps of N-glycoproteins and N-glycans of the three venoms were small. Thus, the exploration results of N-glycome and N-glycoproteome indicate that N-glycosylation increases the complexity and variety of the three venoms. Our research provided some new horizons for the comprehensive understanding of venoms variation, which is helpful for the basic venom research as well as the management of snake envenomation.