A comprehensive portrait of the venom of the giant red bull ant, Myrmecia gulosa , reveals a hyperdiverse hymenopteran toxin gene family

Abstract

Characterization of the venom of an ant reveals a diverse and multifunctional hymenopteran toxin superfamily.

The Peptide Venom Composition of the Fierce Stinging Ant Tetraponera aethiops (Formicidae: Pseudomyrmecinae)

“…The consensus sequence of the prepro-region of Tetraponera aethiops venom peptides shared 43%, 35%, 52%, and 48% with the consensus prepro-regions sequences obtained from previous studies on Odontomachus monticola [26], Myrmecia pilosula [27], Myrmecia gulosa [28], and Tetramorium bicarinatum (Superfamily A) [29], respectively. [26], Myrmecia gulosa [28], Myrmecia pilosula [27], and Tetramorium bicarinatum (Superfamily A) [29] venoms. Alignments were generated with the Muscle program in Seaview version 4.6.1 and edited using BOXSHADE version 3.2.…”

“…Similar residues are highlighted in blue. The consensus sequence of the prepro-region of Tetraponera aethiops venom peptides shared 43%, 35%, 52%, and 48% with the consensus prepro-regions sequences obtained from previous studies on Odontomachus monticola [26], Myrmecia pilosula [27], Myrmecia gulosa [28], and Tetramorium bicarinatum (Superfamily A) [29], respectively. peptide precursors from Tetraponera aethiops venom were submitted to GenBank (for accession numbers, see the legend to Figure 4).…”

“…Tetraponera aethiops peptide precursors seemed to be related to other venom peptide precursors reported for ants. Indeed, this consensus sequence shared 43%, 35%, 52%, and 48% sequence identity with consensus prepro-sequences obtained from studies on Odontomachus monticola [26], Myrmecia pilosula [27], Myrmecia gulosa [28], and Tetramorium bicarinatum venoms [29], respectively ( Figure 3). Unlike prepro-regions, mature regions of these precursors exhibited much more intra-and interspecific amino acid sequence variabilities ( Figure 4).…”

NaV1.6 regulates excitability of mechanosensitive sensory neurons

“…DRG neuron isolation for calcium imaging was performed as previously reported (Teichert et al 2012;Robinson et al 2018). DRGs (all spinal levels) from 4-to 8-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were dissociated with collagenase, (1 mg/mL for 90 min at 37°C) and plated in DMEM (ThermoFisher Scientific) containing 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) (Assay Matrix, Melbourne, VIC, Australia) and penicillin/streptomycin (Thermo-Fisher Scientific) on a 96-well poly-D-lysine-coated culture plate (Corning, Tewksbury, MA, USA) and maintained for 20-24 h at 37°C, 5% CO 2 before assay.…”

“…DRG neurons were loaded with Fluo-4 AM calcium indicator according to the manufacturer's instructions (Thermo Fisher Scientific), and incubated for 1 h at 37°C (Robinson et al 2018). After loading (1 h), the dye-containing solution was replaced with assay solution (1× Hanks' balanced salt solution, 20 mM Hepes).…”