We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Peptide Toxins from Antarctica: The Nemertean Predator and Scavenger Parborlasia corrugatus (McIntosh, 1876).
- Authors
Jacobsson, Erik; Strömstedt, Adam A.; Andersson, Håkan S.; Avila, Conxita; Göransson, Ulf
- Abstract
Peptide toxins from marine invertebrates have found use as drugs and in biotechnological applications. Many marine habitats, however, remain underexplored for natural products, and the Southern Ocean is among them. Here, we report toxins from one of the top predators in Antarctic waters: the nemertean worm Parborlasia corrugatus (McIntosh, 1876). Transcriptome mining revealed a total of ten putative toxins with a cysteine pattern similar to that of alpha nemertides, four nemertide-beta-type sequences, and two novel full-length parborlysins. Nemertean worms express toxins in the epidermal mucus. Here, the expression was determined by liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry. The findings include a new type of nemertide, 8750 Da, containing eight cysteines. In addition, we report the presence of six cysteine-containing peptides. The toxicity of tissue extracts and mucus fractions was tested in an Artemia assay. Notably, significant activity was observed both in tissue and the high-molecular-weight mucus fraction, as well as in a parborlysin fraction. Membrane permeabilization experiments display the membranolytic activity of some peptides, most prominently the parborlysin fraction, with an estimated EC50 of 70 nM.
- Subjects
ANTARCTICA; LIQUID chromatography-mass spectrometry; PEPTIDES; TOXINS; NEMERTEA; MARINE toxins; MARINE habitats
- Publication
Toxins, 2024, Vol 16, Issue 5, p209
- ISSN
2072-6651
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/toxins16050209