Protein Discovery: Combined Transcriptomic and Proteomic Analyses of Venom from the Endoparasitoid Cotesia chilonis (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)

Abstract

Many species of endoparasitoid wasps provide biological control services in agroecosystems. Although there is a great deal of information on the ecology and physiology of host/parasitoid interactions, relatively little is known about the protein composition of venom and how specific venom proteins influence physiological systems within host insects. This is a crucial gap in our knowledge because venom proteins act in modulating host physiology in ways that favor parasitoid development. Here, we identified 37 possible venom proteins from the polydnavirus-carrying endoparasitoid Cotesia chilonis by combining transcriptomic and proteomic analyses. The most abundant proteins were hydrolases, such as proteases, peptidases, esterases, glycosyl hydrolase, and endonucleases. Some components are classical parasitoid venom proteins with known functions, including extracellular superoxide dismutase 3, serine protease inhibitor and calreticulin. The venom contains novel proteins, not recorded from any other parasitoid species, including tolloid-like proteins, chitooligosaccharidolytic β-N-acetylglucosaminidase, FK506-binding protein 14, corticotropin-releasing factor-binding protein and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2. These new data generate hypotheses and provide a platform for functional analysis of venom components.

Venomics of the ectoparasitoid wasp Bracon nigricans

“…Both transcriptome and proteome reported the presence of membrane, cytoskeletal or mitochondrial proteins, lacking the predicted signal peptide (e.g., myosin, calcium-transporting ATPase, tubulin). While these genes are expected to be found in the transcriptome of venom glands, their presence in the venom proteome very likely derives from a contamination due to cell breakage during sample collection [26]. Table S3 Venom includes secreted proteins, which are expressed at different levels, and their abundance is often associated with important biological functions [15,60].…”

“…The large number of studies on venom of endoparasitoid wasps has led to the identification and functional characterization of several molecules involved in the host regulation [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. More recently, the advent of highthroughput technologies greatly contributed to this research area through a "multi-omic" approach often denoted as venomics, which is the integration of genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Such an integrated approach provides a remarkable amount of molecular information and paves the way for the identification and exploitation of new biomolecules potentially useful for therapeutic and agricultural applications [28].…”

Superoxide dismutase from venom of the ectoparasitoid Scleroderma guani inhibits melanization of hemolymph

“…With the increase of recombinant SguaSOD3 concentration in the hemolymph, the PO activity significantly decreases. (Colinet et al, 2011;Liu et al, 2018;Liu, Wang, Zhang, Huang, & Zhu, 2017;Teng et al, 2017). These results suggest that SOD is commonly present in venom of parasitoids.…”

“…SODs have been identified in venoms of several other parasitoids such as L. boulardi , Cotesia chilonis , Tetrastichus brontispae , and Diversinervus elegans (Colinet et al, ; Liu et al, ; Liu, Wang, Zhang, Huang, & Zhu, ; Teng et al, ). These results suggest that SOD is commonly present in venom of parasitoids.…”

“…In L. boulardi and C . chilonis , SOD3 gene showed relatively specific expression in venom apparatus (Colinet et al, ; Teng et al, ). In contrast, SguaSOD3 gene had lower expression in venom apparatus compared to the remnant bodies, which is similar to the case of SOD3 in L. heterotoma (Colinet et al, ).…”