On the trail of the first venomous crustacean: venom gland transcriptome profiling of Remipedia (Crustacea)

有毒动物在世界各地的水生和陆地栖息地随处可见。毒液在动物界的广泛趋同进化证明了它们作为关键生态适应的重要性。毒液组学--对毒液的科学研究--仍处于相对初级阶段，因为主要针对一小部分物种生成了全面的毒液成分图谱。要更全面地了解有关毒液和有毒生物体的生物学和进化的基本问题，就需要有更广阔的视角。取得进展的最明显途径是对怀疑有毒的类群进行调查，特别是如果它们与其他有毒物种有较远的亲缘关系。在这方面，雷米足类甲壳类是一个非常有前途的类群，因为甲壳类是唯一没有已知有毒物种的主要传统节肢动物类群。最近的研究表明，雷米足纲可能是六足类的姐妹群，而不是传统的管角类概念。本项目的具体问题和一般方法是：1.在疑似雷米足类的毒腺中表达哪些假定的毒素家族？2.雷米足类的毒液成分与其他有毒节肢动物和非节肢动物的毒液组成相比如何？这些问题将通过下一代测序技术来解决，以生成第一个甲壳类毒腺图谱。由此产生的数据集将为比较静脉组学的分析提供独特的资源。

Venomous animals are ubiquitous in aquatic and terrestrial habitats across the world. The widespread convergent evolution of venoms in the animal kingdom is testament to their importance as key ecological adaptations. Venomics - the scientific study of venoms - is still in its relative infancy because comprehensive venom composition profiles have been generated primarily for a narrow range of species. A more complete understanding of fundamental issues about the biology and evolution of venoms and venomous organisms requires a broader perspective. The most obvious avenue for progress is the investigation of taxa that are suspected to be venomous, especially if they are distantly related to other venomous species.In this respect remipede crustaceans are an extraordinarily promising group, as Crustacea is the only major traditional arthropod group without known venomous species. Recent studies show that Remipedia are the possible sistergroup to Hexapoda supporting Pancrustacea instead of the traditional Atelocerata (= Tracheata) concept.The specific questions and general approach in this project are: 1. What putative toxin families are expressed in the suspected venom glands of remipedes?2. How does remipede venom composition compare with that of other venomous arthropods and non-arthropods?These questions will be addressed with next generation sequencing technology to generate the first crustacean venom gland profile. The resulting dataset will provide a unique resource for analyses in comparative venomics.