AI Article Synopsis

  • - The noble false widow spider, originating from the Macaronesian region, has spread globally and can negatively impact local wildlife and cause human envenomations, particularly in temperate areas where humans and the spider often interact.
  • - This spider is the only one in Ireland and the UK known to have significant medical implications, with venom causing neurotoxic symptoms similar to those from true black widow spiders, despite the venom composition of false widows being largely unstudied.
  • - Advanced transcriptomic and proteomic techniques were used to analyze the false widow spider's venom, identifying various toxins and proteins, with α-latrotoxins and latrodectins being highly concentrated and likely responsible for severe effects post-envenomation, emphasizing

Article Abstract

The noble false widow spider originates from the Macaronesian archipelago and has expanded its range globally. Outside of its natural range, it may have a negative impact on native wildlife, and in temperate regions it lives in synanthropic environments where it frequently encounters humans, subsequently leading to envenomations. is the only medically significant spider in Ireland and the UK, and envenomations have resulted in local and systemic neurotoxic symptoms similar to true black widows (genus ). is a sister group to which possesses the highly potent neurotoxins called α-latrotoxins that can induce neuromuscular paralysis and is responsible for human fatalities. However, and despite this close relationship, the venom composition of has never been investigated. In this context, a combination of transcriptomic and proteomic cutting-edge approaches has been used to deeply characterise venom. Mining of transcriptome data for the peptides identified by proteomics revealed 240 annotated sequences, of which 118 are related to toxins, 37 as enzymes, 43 as proteins involved in various biological functions, and 42 proteins without any identified function to date. Among the toxins, the most represented in numbers are α-latrotoxins (61), δ-latroinsectotoxins (44) and latrodectins (6), all of which were first characterised from black widow venoms. Transcriptomics alone provided a similar representation to proteomics, thus demonstrating that our approach is highly sensitive and accurate. More precisely, a relative quantification approach revealed that latrodectins are the most concentrated toxin (28%), followed by α-latrotoxins (11%), δ-latroinsectotoxins (11%) and α-latrocrustotoxins (11%). Approximately two-thirds of the venom is composed of -like toxins. Such toxins are highly potent towards the nervous system of vertebrates and likely responsible for the array of symptoms occurring after envenomation by black widows and false widows. Thus, caution should be taken in dismissing as harmless. This work paves the way towards a better understanding of the competitiveness of and its potential medical importance.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7354476PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins12060402DOI Listing

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