Advances in venomics

Abstract

The term "venomics" was coined to describe the global study of venom and venom glands, targeting comprehensive characterization of the whole toxin profile of a venomous animal by means of proteomics, transcriptomics, genomics and bioinformatics studies. This integrative approach is supported by the rapid evolution of protein, RNA and DNA sequencing techniques, as well as databases, knowledge-bases and biocomputing algorithms. The aim of this review is to illustrate advances in the field of venomics during the last decade, addressing each step of the procedure, from sample collection to data treatment. A special focus is made on new perspectives for a better understanding of the venomous function and for fostering the discovery of new venom-derived drug candidates.

Venomics: A Mini-Review

“…PTMs are particularly common in venom. For example, cone snail venom peptides are notorious for undergoing a diverse range of PTMs, with up to 75% of amino acids post-translationally modified in individual conopeptides [ 2 , 15 ]. Disulfide bonds and C-terminal amidation are common PTMs found in spider venom peptides, and examples of common PTMs observed in cone snail venom peptides include C-terminal amidation, disulfide bonds, N-terminal pyroglutamylation, proline hydroxylation, valine hydroxylation, tryptophan bromination, γ-carboxylation of glutamic acid, tyrosine sulfation, and O -glycosylation [ 2 , 15 ].…”

“…The availability of relevant protein or nucleic acid databases is frequently a limitation in proteomic studies [ 15 ]. In general, the traditional bottom-up approaches have the disadvantage of typically failing to provide complete protein sequence coverage and preventing the distinction between different related protein species, particularly proteoforms and protein isoforms, and is known as the protein inference problem [ 50 , 52 ].…”

“…Advances in omics technologies, synonymous with high-throughput techniques [ 13 ], such as proteomics, transcriptomics and genomics approaches have facilitated the characterisation of venom peptides and proteins, and led to the term venomics. Venomics was first described as the venom gland proteome [ 14 ] but the definition has expanded to encompass the global study of the venom and the venom gland, incorporating characterization of the whole venom profile through integration of proteomic, transcriptomic and genomic methodologies [ 15 ]. Without this integration, the individual studies are just a venom-based omics study and lack complementary data.…”

An economic dilemma between weapon systems may explain an arachno-atypical venom in wasp spiders (Argiope bruennichi)

“…Combinations of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and microbiomics (e.g. Oldrati et al, 2016;Ul-Hasan et al, 2019, Drukewitz & von Reumont 2019 now allow the analysis of venoms form previously neglected taxa (e.g. von Reumont et al, 2014) in an emerging field known as modern evolutionary venomics (von .…”

Modelling the interactions between animal venom peptides and membrane proteins

“…Animal venoms are a rich source of peptide toxins mainly acting on the nervous system (Kalia et al, 2015). A number of peptides from this vast and complex pool of bioactive peptides have shown potential therapeutic applications, and the study of animal venoms attract considerable interest (Calvete, 2017;Kaas and Craik, 2015;Oldrati et al, 2016;Nasiripourdori et al, 2011). Venoms of snakes, spiders, cone snails, scorpions, anemones, bees and wasps have been the most investigated, resulting in the identification of several thousands of toxins (Jungo et al, 2012), but only a fraction of these toxins has been functionally characterised.…”