GBE Conotoxin Diversity in Chelyconus ermineus (Born, 1778) and the Convergent Origin of Piscivory in the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Cones Samuel Abalde1,ManuelJ.Tenorio2,CarlosM.L.Afonso3, and Rafael Zardoya1,* 1Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biologıa Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC), Madrid, Spain Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/gbe/article-abstract/10/10/2643/5061556 by CSIC user on 17 January 2020 2Departamento CMIM y Q. Inorganica-INBIO, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Cadiz, Puerto Real, Spain 3Fisheries, Biodiversity and Conervation Group, Centre of Marine Sciences (CCMAR), Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, Faro, Portugal *Corresponding author: E-mail:
[email protected]. Accepted: July 28, 2018 Data deposition: Raw RNA seq data: SRA database: project number SRP139515 (SRR6983161-SRR6983169) Abstract The transcriptome of the venom duct of the Atlantic piscivorous cone species Chelyconus ermineus (Born, 1778) was determined. The venom repertoire of this species includes at least 378 conotoxin precursors, which could be ascribed to 33 known and 22 new (unassigned) protein superfamilies, respectively. Most abundant superfamilies were T, W, O1, M, O2, and Z, accounting for 57% of all detected diversity. A total of three individuals were sequenced showing considerable intraspecific variation: each individual had many exclusive conotoxin precursors, and only 20% of all inferred mature peptides were common to all individuals. Three different regions (distal, medium, and proximal with respect to the venom bulb) of the venom duct were analyzed independently. Diversity (in terms of number of distinct members) of conotoxin precursor superfamilies increased toward the distal region whereas transcripts detected toward the proximal region showed higher expression levels.