Journal
TOXICON
Volume 76, Issue -, Pages 150-159Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2013.09.020
Keywords
Conus; Conotoxin; Conopeptide; Birth-and-death evolution; Codon conservation; Insertions and deletions
Categories
Funding
- Ministry of Science and Technology of China [2006AA090504, 2008AA09Z401]
- Science and Technology Support Program [2012BAD117B02]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [30871921]
- Project of Guangdong Science-Tech Program [2006A36501001]
- Guangdong Natural Science Foundation [8151027501000083]
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Conotoxins from cone snails are valuable in physiology research and therapeutic applications. Evolutionary mechanisms of conotoxins have been investigated in several super-families, but there is no phylogenetic analysis on M-superfamily conotoxins. In this study, we characterized identical sequences, gene structure, novel cysteine frameworks, functions and evolutionary mechanisms of M-superfamily conotoxins. Identical M-superfamily conotoxins can be found in different Corms species from the analysis of novel 467 M-superfamily conotoxin sequences and other published M-superfamily conotoxins sequences. M-superfamily conotoxin genes consist of two introns and three exons from the results of genome walking. Eighteen cysteine frameworks were identified from the M-superfamily conotoxins, and 10 of the 18 may be generated from framework III. An analysis between diet types and phylogeny of the M-superfamily conotoxins indicate that M-superfamily conotoxins might not evolve in a concerted manner but were subject to birth-and-death evolution. Codon usage analysis shows that position-specific codon conservation is not restricted to cysteines, but also to other conserved residues. By analysing primary structures and physiological functions of M-superfamily conotoxins, we proposed a hypothesis that insertions and deletions, especially insertions in the third cysteine loop, are involved in the creation of new functions and structures of the M-superfamily conotoxins. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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