Venomous marine cone snails produce a unique and remarkably diverse range of venom peptides (conotoxins and conopeptides) that have proven invaluable as pharmacological probes and leads to new therapies. Conus catus is 'hook-and-line' fish hunter from clade I, with ~20 conotoxins identified, including the analgesic ω-conotoxin CVID (AM336). The current study unravels the venom composition of C. catus with tandem mass spectrometry and 454 sequencing data. From the venom gland transcriptome, 104 precursors were recovered from 11 superfamilies, with superfamily A (especially κA-) conotoxins dominating (77%) their venom. Proteomic analysis confirmed the κA-conotoxins dominated the predation-evoked milked venom of each of six C. catus analysed and revealed remarkable intraspecific variation in both the intensity and type of conotoxins. High-throughput FLIPR assays revealed that the predation-evoked venom contained a range of conotoxins targeting the nAChR, Cav and Nav ion channels, consistent with α- and ω-conotoxins being used for predation by C. catus. However, the κA-conotoxins did not act at these targets but induced potent and rapid immobilisation followed by bursts of activity and finally paralysis when injected intramuscularly in zebrafish. Our venomics approach revealed the complexity of the envenomation strategy used by C. catus, which contains a mix of both excitatory and inhibitory venom peptides.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
3
7%
Chemistry
3
7%
Sports and Recreations
1
2%
Other
0
0%
Unknown
19
43%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 September 2015.
All research outputs
#17,163,067
of 28,153,906 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Proteome Research
#4,244
of 6,945 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#144,226
of 281,694 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Proteome Research
#50
of 128 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 28,153,906 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 37th percentile – i.e., 37% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 6,945 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.6. This one is in the 36th percentile – i.e., 36% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 281,694 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 47th percentile – i.e., 47% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 128 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 59% of its contemporaries.
