Transcriptome analysis of the venom gland of the scorpion Scorpiops jendeki: implication for the evolution of the scorpion venom arsenal

Abstract

Background: The family Euscorpiidae, which covers Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, is one of the most widely distributed scorpion groups. However, no studies have been conducted on the venom of a Euscorpiidae species yet. In this work, we performed a transcriptomic approach for characterizing the venom components from a Euscorpiidae scorpion, Scorpiops jendeki.

Scorpion venom components that affect ion-channels function

“…Recently, the identification of venom components have been obtained by sequencing cDNA clones of cDNA libraries of venomous glands obtained from scorpions of different families (Schwartz et al, 2007; Kozminsky-Atias et al, 2008; D’Suze et al, 2009; Ma et al, 2009; Roeding et al, 2009; Silva et al, 2009; Ma et al, 2010; Ruiming et al, 2010; Morgenstern et al, 2011; Almeida 2012; Diego-García 2012; Ma et al, 2012; Rendón-Anaya 2012; Luna-Ramírez et al, 2013). …”

The transcriptome recipe for the venom cocktail of Tityus bahiensis scorpion

“…Butantoxin, on the other hand, is a potassium channel blocker purified from T. serrulatus, T. bahiensis and T. stigmurus (Holaday et al, 2000). Peptides and enzymatic proteins present in the composition of the venom from some scorpion species have been investigated by different approaches such as transcriptomic and proteomic methods (Kalapothakis et al, 2001;Pimenta et al, 2001;Goudet et al, 2002;Schwartz et al, 2007;Ma et al, 2009Ma et al, , 2010Ruiming et al, 2010;Morgenstern et al, 2011;D'Suze et al, 2009;Batista et al, 2006Batista et al, , 2007Bringans et al, 2008;Rates et al, 2008;Ma et al, 2012;Diego-Garcia et al, 2012;Almeida et al, 2012;Alvarenga et al, 2012;Rend on-Anaya et al, 2012;Abdel-Rahman et al, 2013;He et al, 2013;Luna-Ramírez et al, 2013;Valdez-Vel azquez et al, 2013). However, no large-scale effort has been carried out for T. bahiensis and only a few reports of sequencing specific toxins are found in the literature (Becerril et al, 1996(Becerril et al, , 1997Trequattrini et al, 1995).…”

What's your poison?

“…On the other hand, transcriptomic studies of scorpions have lagged behind those of many other venomous taxa. As a result, the paper of Ma et al (2009), in which they investigated the venom gland transcriptome of the scorpion Scorpiops jendeki, yielding a new database of 871 expressed sequence tags, is particularly welcome. Whereas the majority of scorpion toxin sequences previously lodged with public databases were from species of the medically important family Buthidae, Ma et al (2009) chose a harmless species of the family Euscorpiidae.…”

“…As a result, the paper of Ma et al (2009), in which they investigated the venom gland transcriptome of the scorpion Scorpiops jendeki, yielding a new database of 871 expressed sequence tags, is particularly welcome. Whereas the majority of scorpion toxin sequences previously lodged with public databases were from species of the medically important family Buthidae, Ma et al (2009) chose a harmless species of the family Euscorpiidae. By providing toxin data across a greater part of the span of the evolutionary tree of scorpions, this paper will contribute enormously to our ability to investigate the origins and mode of evolution of scorpion venoms.…”

“…Through the publication of this Expressed Sequence Tags database, Ma et al (2009) have started the process of entering scorpion venoms into the transcriptomic age. As in the case of other venomous organisms, the future will undoubtedly bring a plethora of new discoveries.…”