Universität zu Köln

Kraemer, Jonas, Pommerening, Ricardo ORCID: 0000-0002-6409-7855 and Predel, Reinhard (2022). Equipped for Sexual Stings? Male-Specific Venom Peptides in Euscorpius italicus. Int. J. Mol. Sci., 23 (19). BASEL: MDPI. ISSN 1422-0067

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Abstract

In the animal kingdom, intraspecific variation occurs, for example, between populations, different life stages, and sexes. For venomous animals, this can involve differences in their venom composition. In cases where venom is utilized in the context of mating, the differences in composition might be driven by sexual selection. In this regard, the genus Euscorpius is a promising group for further research, as some of these scorpions exhibit a distinct sexual dimorphism and are known to perform a sexual sting during mating. However, the venom composition of this genus remains largely unexplored. Here, we demonstrate that Euscorpius italicus exhibits a male-specific venom composition, and we identify a large fraction of the substances involved. The sex specificity of venom peptides was first determined by analyzing the presence/absence patterns of ion signals in MALDI-TOF mass spectra of venom samples from both sexes and juveniles. Subsequently, a proteo-transcriptomic analysis provided sequence information on the relevant venom peptides and their corresponding precursors. As a result, we show that several potential toxin precursors are down-regulated in male venom glands, possibly to reduce toxic effects caused to females during the sexual sting. We have identified the precursor of one of the most prominent male-specific venom peptides, which may be an ideal candidate for activity tests in future studies. In addition to the description of male-specific features in the venom of E. italicus, this study also includes a general survey of venom precursors in this species.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Kraemer, Jonas UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Pommerening, Ricardo UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-6409-7855 UNSPECIFIED Predel, Reinhard UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-661630
DOI:	10.3390/ijms231911020
Journal or Publication Title:	Int. J. Mol. Sci.
Volume:	23
Number:	19
Date:	2022
Publisher:	MDPI
Place of Publication:	BASEL
ISSN:	1422-0067
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language SCORPION; DIMORPHISM; MORPHOLOGY; BEHAVIOR; SPIDERS; ARANEAE; WEB Multiple languages Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Chemistry, Multidisciplinary Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/66163