Proteomic analysis of Latrodectus tredecimguttatus venom for uncovering potential latrodectism‐related proteins

Abstract

Black widow spider is one of the most poisonous spiders in the world. Up to now, there have been few systematic analyses of the spider venom components, and the mechanism of action of the venom has not been completely understood. In this work, we employed combinative proteomic strategy to analyze the venom collected from living adult spider Latrodectus tredecimguttatus by electrical stimulation. The experiments demonstrated that the venom is primarily composed of high molecular weight proteins and has high abundance proteins around 100 kDa. The content of peptides and proteins with low molecular weight is low. A total of 75 nonredundant venom proteins with distinct function were unambiguously identified. Besides the known black widow spider venom proteins including latrotoxins, a variety of hydrolases and other proteins with special activity were found in the venom, such as proteinase, phospholipase, phosphatase, nuclease, fucolectin, venom allergen antigen 5-like protein and trypsin inhibitor, and so on. Their possible biological actions and relationship with latrodectism were discussed. The results help to understand the complexity and action mechanism of L. tredecimguttatus venom.

Transcriptome Analysis to Understand the Toxicity of Latrodectus tredecimguttatus Eggs

“…Allergens/Lipocalins have been identified as potential toxins in spider venoms, which are potent molecules to cause sensitization and disrupt hemostasis [29,46,54,55,56]. Data from our present work showed that 11 unigenes in the L. tredecimguttatus eggs encoded allergens/lipocalins (Table S3).…”

“…However, it is worthy of pointing out that although both venom and eggs of L. tredecimguttatus use some peptides, proteins and/or enzymes to participate in the construction of their toxicity basis, they share only a few identical proteinaceous components, and therefore have different toxicity mechanisms. This conclusion was supported by the fact that latrotoxins— typical Latrodectus proteinaceous venom toxins—were identified in the venom proteome [56] and venom gland transcriptome [8], but not in the egg proteome [15] and present egg transcriptome of L. tredecimguttatus .…”

Physiological and biochemical characterization of egg extract of black widow spiders to uncover molecular basis of egg toxicity

“…The venom secreted by its venomous glands is a mixture of biologically active components which have diverse actions on prey as well as human victims. Many studies including our previous work analyzed the venom secreted by its venomous glands and described the biological properties and structures of some venomous proteins in the venom [2–6]. Interestingly, black widow spider, different from other poisonous animals, has toxic components not only in the venomous glands, but also in other parts of the body (such as legs and abdomen) and its eggs.…”

Molecular basis and mechanism underlying the insecticidal activity of venoms and toxins from Latrodectus spiders

“…When the L. tredecimguttatus venom collected by electrical stimulation was analyzed using a proteomic strategy, 122 proteins were identified, including 10 previously reported to be latrotoxins, such as α‐ LTX, α‐LIT, δ‐LIT, latrodectins or their precursors; 33 proteins have catalytic activity, including five proteases, four phosphatases, three nucleases and one phospholipase . It is speculated that in addition to latrotoxins, some enzymes, particularly the proteases, also have roles in the toxicity of the venom toward prey, including insects and other small animals, because a series of reports have demonstrated that the noxious effect of spider venoms is partially attributed to the presence of proteases that degrade tissue proteins in the prey .…”