Journal
TOXICON
Volume 49, Issue 8, Pages 1135-1149Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2007.02.011
Keywords
alpha conotoxin; cDNA cloning; gene cloning; intron; evolution
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In the venoms of cone snails, alpha conotoxins are competitive antagonists of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Eleven novel cDNA and eight partial gene sequences (including two pseudogenes) of alpha conotoxins were identified from five species of cone snail. As expected, every cDNA encodes a precursor of prepropeptide. In all the partial genes of a conotoxins identified, there is a long intron inserted at a fixed position in the pro-region, dividing the encoding region into two exons. The mutation rate in exon I (encoding the signal peptide and a part of pro-region) is much lower than that in exon II (encoding the other part of pro-region, the mature peptide and 3' untranslational region). Interestingly, the sequences at the 5' and 3' end of introns are highly conserved. In addition, in the identified introns exist long dinucleotide (e.g. GT, CA) or trinucleotide (CAT) repeats. In the special case of Pu1.1, there are five almost identical repeats of a 150bp sequence in the long intron. Taking advantage of the conserved 3' end sequence of intron, 16 alpha. conotoxins, as well as a pseudogene and three kappa A conotoxins, were identified from their genomic DNAs. Based on the comparison of these cDNA and gene sequences, a hypothesis of the alpha conotoxin evolution was proposed. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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