Biochemical mechanisms employed in prey envenomation involve a complex interplay between venom chemistry and homeostatic mechanisms in the prey thus, envenomation success depends upon exploiting the prey’s biochemistry. Snakes employ a great variety of biochemical compounds to immobilize, kill, and digest their prey, although whether venom actually augments assimilation efficiency is a matter of continuing debate. This means that MS can be used for quantitative, non-invasive venom profiling, which will be beneficial for studies of endangered species. We show, for the first time, that transcript and peptide abundances are correlated. The former quantifies transcript composition, allowing detection of novel proteins, but cannot indicate which proteins are actually secreted, as does MS. This study illustrates the power of cDNA sequencing combined with MS profiling. Ovophis venom apparently represents a hybrid strategy optimized for frogs and small mammals.

Ovophis venom composition is less readily interpreted, owing to insufficient pharmacological data for venom serine and metalloproteases, which comprise more than 97.3% of Ovophis transcripts, but only 38.0% of Protobothrops transcripts. Adult Protobothrops venom promotes hemorrhage, hypotension, incoagulable blood, and prey digestion, consistent with mammalian predation.

These transcriptomes reveal fundamentally different envenomation strategies. human keratin) levels, including a number of proteins never before sequenced from snakes. Mass spectrometry identified peptides from 100% of transcripts that occurred at higher than contaminant (e.g. In both, transcript abundances spanned six orders of magnitude. The Protobothrops transcriptome contained transcripts for 103 venom-related proteins, while the Ovophis transcriptome contained 95. Sequencing of venom gland cDNA produced 104,830 transcripts. Here, both Illumina cDNA sequencing and LC/MS were used to compare the transcriptomes and proteomes of two pit vipers, Protobothrops flavoviridis and Ovophis okinavensis, which differ greatly in their biology. Most studies have employed one approach or the other. Advances in DNA sequencing and proteomics have facilitated quantitative comparisons of snake venom composition.

Snakes by J.Z. Hunt