High Specific Efficiency of Venom of Two Prey-Specialized Spiders

Michálek, Ondřej; Kuhn‐Nentwig, Lucia; Pekár, Stanislav

doi:10.3390/toxins11120687

Cited by 24 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 66 publications

(83 reference statements)

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“…They populate nearly all ecosystems and are with more than 48,770 species 2 the most species-rich terrestrial invertebrate group after insects. Evolution during such a long time generated species that mainly use venom as generalized predators, besides a few specialized groups 3 . Spider venom has to fulfill three tasks, (1) immediate paralysis of prey, (2) fast acting in lowest doses, and (3) defense against aggressors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complex precursor structures of cytolytic cupiennins identified in spider venom gland transcriptomes

Kuhn‐Nentwig

2021

Sci Rep

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Analysis of spider venom gland transcriptomes focuses on the identification of possible neurotoxins, proteins and enzymes. Here, the first comprehensive transcriptome analysis of cupiennins, small linear cationic peptides, also known as cytolytic or antimicrobial peptides, is reported from the venom gland transcriptome of Cupiennius salei by 454- and Illumina 3000 sequencing. Four transcript families with complex precursor structures are responsible for the expression of 179 linear peptides. Within the transcript families, after an anionic propeptide, cationic linear peptides are separated by anionic linkers, which are transcript family specific. The C-terminus of the transcript families is characterized by a linear peptide or truncated linkers with unknown function. A new identified posttranslational processing mechanism explains the presence of the two-chain CsTx-16 family in the venom. The high diversity of linear peptides in the venom of a spider and this unique synthesis process is at least genus specific as verified with Cupiennius getazi.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complex precursor structures of cytolytic cupiennins identified in spider venom gland transcriptomes

Kuhn‐Nentwig

2021

Sci Rep

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“…In particular, as the functional ability of such venoms are selected through their efficacy against the organisms they are most frequently targeted towards, they are expected to show patterns of prey-specific potencies [13,14]. Examples of venoms which show such prey-specific potency are found across the animal kingdom, including spiders [13,[15][16][17], cone snails [11,18,19], centipedes [20], heteropterans [21] and snakes [22]. Furthermore, in snakes, prey-specific potencies seem to be the rule rather than the exception, with increasing potencies found to be associated with venoms tested on animals more closely related to the snakes' diet [14,23,24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diet Breadth Mediates the Prey Specificity of Venom Potency in Snakes

Lyons

Dugon

Healy

2020

Toxins

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Venoms are best known for their ability to incapacitate prey. In predatory groups, venom potency is predicted to reflect ecological and evolutionary drivers relating to diet. While venoms have been found to have prey-specific potencies, the role of diet breadth on venom potencies has yet to be tested at large macroecological scales. Here, using a comparative analysis of 100 snake species, we show that the evolution of prey-specific venom potencies is contingent on the breadth of a species’ diet. We find that while snake venom is more potent when tested on species closely related to natural prey items, we only find this prey-specific pattern in species with taxonomically narrow diets. While we find that the taxonomic diversity of a snakes’ diet mediates the prey specificity of its venom, the species richness of its diet was not found to affect these prey-specific potency patterns. This indicates that the physiological diversity of a species’ diet is an important driver of the evolution of generalist venom potencies. These findings suggest that the venoms of species with taxonomically diverse diets may be better suited to incapacitating novel prey species and hence play an important role for species within changing environments.

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“…spiders of the genus Ammoxenus, are specialised to such an extent that they were not able to locate and catch any other prey than a single termite species (Petráková et al, 2015). An important adaptation in spiders is venom composition tuned to focal prey (Michálek et al, 2019). Stenaelurillus possess venom more efficient to paralyse termites than alternative prey .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coexistence of two termite‐eating specialists (Araneae)

Pekár

Dušátková

Michálek

et al. 2020

Ecological Entomology

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1. Competition among closely-related specialist predators has rarely been studied, and thus the mechanism of their coexistence remains enigmatic. Interspecific competition among specialised co-occurring predators capturing termites should be high. 2. Here we investigated various niche dimensions, namely temporal, spatial and trophic, of a couple of jumping spider species of the genus Stenaelurillus (Stenaelurillus guttiger and S. modestus) from South Africa, to find whether these two species co-exist and along which niche dimension(s) they differentiate. 3. The two species co-occurred in two out of five study sites. Body size was not significantly different between the species. The phenology was shifted so that one species matured earlier. Circadian activity was not different, as both species were diurnal and active at similar times. Both species preyed almost exclusively on termites. The fundamental trophic niche was very similar and rather narrow. The realised trophic niche at the prey order level of both species was similar, but at the genus level it was different. In S. modestus it was narrower, as it captured mainly Odontotermes, while S. guttiger exploited a few termite species. The size of prey captured was also similar between the two species. The frequency of intraguild predation was negligible. 4. We conclude that both Stenaelurillus species are specialised termitophagous predators. The two species can coexist across broad spatial scales due to spatial segregation on the landscape. At the sites where they co-occur, the two species specialise on different termite prey, promoting local coexistence.

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High Specific Efficiency of Venom of Two Prey-Specialized Spiders

Cited by 24 publications

References 66 publications

Complex precursor structures of cytolytic cupiennins identified in spider venom gland transcriptomes

Complex precursor structures of cytolytic cupiennins identified in spider venom gland transcriptomes

Diet Breadth Mediates the Prey Specificity of Venom Potency in Snakes

Coexistence of two termite‐eating specialists (Araneae)

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