Abstract
Cone snails are carnivorous marine mollusks, which use a potent neurotoxic venom, for predatory and defensive purposes in their environment [1]. Some cone snails prey on fish (piscivorous), worms (vermivorous) or mollusks (molluscivorous) [2].The main constituents of a cone snail venom are highly structured cysteine-rich peptides known as conotoxins. Remarkably, a subset of conotoxins are specifically selected for predation or for defense in some species [1,3]. Yet, characterizing the entire venom content of cone snails is essential, not only to have a better understanding of the cone snails’ biology, but also to discover new therapeutic leads, such as the FDA-approved analgesic Ziconotide (Prialt®) [4].Here we describe the venom characterization of the mollusk-hunting cone snail Cylinder canonicus, using a proteo-transcriptomics approach. This approach first consists in profiling the venom by standard mass spectrometry technologies such as LC-MS and MALDI-TOF-MS, second, by sequencing a library of all the expressed mRNA in the whole venom gland, and finally, by matching MS/MS spectra with transcriptomics data. Analysis of the predatory milked venom compared to different sections of the duct revealed a distal origin.1. Dutertre, S. et al., Nat. Commun. 2014, 5, 3521, doi:10.1038/ncomms4521.2. Puillandre, N. et al., J. Molluscan Stud. 2015, 81, 1e23, doi:10.1093/mollus/eyu055.3. Ratibou, Z.; Inguimbert, N.; Dutertre, S. Toxins 2024, 16, 94. doi.org/10.3390/ toxins160200944. Safavi-Hemami, H. et al., J. Proteomics 2019, 190, 12e20. doi:10.1016/j.jprot.2018.05.009.