Harnessing snake venom cardiotoxins for antimicrobial peptide discovery

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  Harnessing snake venom cardiotoxins for antimicrobial peptide discovery Abstract Snake venoms are a rich source of bioactive molecules with considerable potential for drug discovery. Cardiotoxins (CTXs) from cobras ( Naja spp.) are membrane-active venom proteins and promising templates for antimicrobial peptide development. Here, we combined two computational toxin-mining strategies to identify antimicrobial peptide candidates from CTXs. First, AMPA-guided sequence mining was used to detect encrypted antimicrobial regions within CTX sequences. Second, sequence alignment and consensus-sequence analysis were employed to generate peptides from a conserved CTX scaffold. Candidate peptides were prioritised using multiple machine learning- and deep learning-based antimicrobial peptide prediction tools, resulting in fourteen CTX-inspired peptides, including two modified derivatives of CTX-p5. Antimicrobial screening showed limited activity across the peptide panel, with CTX-p5 exhibiti...

Intraspecific body size variation and allometry of genitalia in the orb-web spider—Argiope lobata

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Intraspecific body size variation and allometry of genitalia in the orb-web spider—Argiope lobata

Abstract


The current consensus is that sexual selection is responsible for the rapid and diverse evolution of genitalia, with several mutually exclusive mechanisms under debate, including non-antagonistic, antagonistic, and stabilizing mechanisms. We used the orb-web spider, Argiope lobata (Araneidae), as a study model to quantify the allometric relationship between body size and genitalia, and to test for any impact of genital structures on male mating success or outcome in terms of copulation duration, leg loss or cannibalism. Our data do not support the ‘one-size-fits-all’ hypothesis that predicts a negative allometric slope between genitalia and body size. Importantly, we measured both male and female genitalia, and there was no sex-specific pattern in allometric slopes. Unexpectedly, we found no predictor for reproductive success as indicated by copulation duration, cannibalism, and leg loss.


Dharmarathne C, McLean DJ, Herberstein ME, Schneider JM.2023. Intraspecific body size variation and allometry of genitalia in the orb-web spider—Argiope lobata. PeerJ 11:e16413