Evolution of separate predation- and defence-evoked venoms in carnivorous cone snails

Venomous animals are thought to inject the same combination of toxins for both predation and defence, presumably exploiting conserved target pharmacology across prey and predators. Remarkably, cone snails can rapidly switch between distinct venoms in response to predatory or defensive stimuli. Here,...

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Main Authors:	Dutertre, Sébastien, Jin, Ai-Hua, Vetter, Irina, Hamilton, Brett, Sunagar, Kartik, Lavergne, Vincent, Dutertre, Valentin, Fry, Bryan G., Antunes, Agostinho, Venter, Deon J., Alewood, Paul F., Lewis, Richard J.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Nature Pub. Group 2014
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3973120/

id	pubmed-3973120
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-39731202014-04-03 Evolution of separate predation- and defence-evoked venoms in carnivorous cone snails Dutertre, Sébastien Jin, Ai-Hua Vetter, Irina Hamilton, Brett Sunagar, Kartik Lavergne, Vincent Dutertre, Valentin Fry, Bryan G. Antunes, Agostinho Venter, Deon J. Alewood, Paul F. Lewis, Richard J. Article Venomous animals are thought to inject the same combination of toxins for both predation and defence, presumably exploiting conserved target pharmacology across prey and predators. Remarkably, cone snails can rapidly switch between distinct venoms in response to predatory or defensive stimuli. Here, we show that the defence-evoked venom of Conus geographus contains high levels of paralytic toxins that potently block neuromuscular receptors, consistent with its lethal effects on humans. In contrast, C. geographus predation-evoked venom contains prey-specific toxins mostly inactive at human targets. Predation- and defence-evoked venoms originate from the distal and proximal regions of the venom duct, respectively, explaining how different stimuli can generate two distinct venoms. A specialized defensive envenomation strategy is widely evolved across worm, mollusk and fish-hunting cone snails. We propose that defensive toxins, originally evolved in ancestral worm-hunting cone snails to protect against cephalopod and fish predation, have been repurposed in predatory venoms to facilitate diversification to fish and mollusk diets. Nature Pub. Group 2014-03-24 /pmc/articles/PMC3973120/ /pubmed/24662800 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4521 Text en Copyright © 2014, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Dutertre, Sébastien Jin, Ai-Hua Vetter, Irina Hamilton, Brett Sunagar, Kartik Lavergne, Vincent Dutertre, Valentin Fry, Bryan G. Antunes, Agostinho Venter, Deon J. Alewood, Paul F. Lewis, Richard J.
spellingShingle	Dutertre, Sébastien Jin, Ai-Hua Vetter, Irina Hamilton, Brett Sunagar, Kartik Lavergne, Vincent Dutertre, Valentin Fry, Bryan G. Antunes, Agostinho Venter, Deon J. Alewood, Paul F. Lewis, Richard J. Evolution of separate predation- and defence-evoked venoms in carnivorous cone snails
author_facet	Dutertre, Sébastien Jin, Ai-Hua Vetter, Irina Hamilton, Brett Sunagar, Kartik Lavergne, Vincent Dutertre, Valentin Fry, Bryan G. Antunes, Agostinho Venter, Deon J. Alewood, Paul F. Lewis, Richard J.
author_sort	Dutertre, Sébastien
title	Evolution of separate predation- and defence-evoked venoms in carnivorous cone snails
title_short	Evolution of separate predation- and defence-evoked venoms in carnivorous cone snails
title_full	Evolution of separate predation- and defence-evoked venoms in carnivorous cone snails
title_fullStr	Evolution of separate predation- and defence-evoked venoms in carnivorous cone snails
title_full_unstemmed	Evolution of separate predation- and defence-evoked venoms in carnivorous cone snails
title_sort	evolution of separate predation- and defence-evoked venoms in carnivorous cone snails
description	Venomous animals are thought to inject the same combination of toxins for both predation and defence, presumably exploiting conserved target pharmacology across prey and predators. Remarkably, cone snails can rapidly switch between distinct venoms in response to predatory or defensive stimuli. Here, we show that the defence-evoked venom of Conus geographus contains high levels of paralytic toxins that potently block neuromuscular receptors, consistent with its lethal effects on humans. In contrast, C. geographus predation-evoked venom contains prey-specific toxins mostly inactive at human targets. Predation- and defence-evoked venoms originate from the distal and proximal regions of the venom duct, respectively, explaining how different stimuli can generate two distinct venoms. A specialized defensive envenomation strategy is widely evolved across worm, mollusk and fish-hunting cone snails. We propose that defensive toxins, originally evolved in ancestral worm-hunting cone snails to protect against cephalopod and fish predation, have been repurposed in predatory venoms to facilitate diversification to fish and mollusk diets.
publisher	Nature Pub. Group
publishDate	2014
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3973120/
_version_	1612073282878570496

Evolution of separate predation- and defence-evoked venoms in carnivorous cone snails

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