bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/378141; this version posted July 26, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. Venoms of related mammal-eating species of taipans (Oxyuranus) and brown snakes (Pseudonaja) differ in composition of toxins involved in mammal poisoning Jure Skejic1,2,3*, David L. Steer4, Nathan Dunstan5, Wayne C. Hodgson2 1 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, BIO21 Institute, University of Melbourne, 30 Flemington Road, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia 2 Monash Venom Group, Department of Pharmacology, Monash University, 9 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia 3 Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics, Division of Molecular Biology, Ruder Boskovic Institute, Bijenicka 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia 4 Monash Biomedical Proteomics Facility, Monash University, 23 Innovation Walk, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia 5 Venom Supplies Pty Ltd., Stonewell road, Tanunda, South Australia 5352, Australia * Correspondence:
[email protected] 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/378141; this version posted July 26, 2018. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. Abstract Background Differences in venom composition among related snake lineages have often been attributed primarily to diet. Australian elapids belonging to taipans (Oxyuranus) and brown snakes (Pseudonaja) include a few specialist predators as well as generalists that have broader dietary niches and represent a suitable model system to investigate this assumption. Here, shotgun high-resolution mass spectrometry (Q Exactive Orbitrap) was used to compare venom proteome composition of several related mammal-eating species of taipans and brown snakes.