Unraveling the peptidome of the South African cone snails Conus pictus and Conus natalis

摘要: Venoms from cone snails (genus Conus) can be seen as an untapped cocktail of biologically active compounds, being increasingly recognized emerging source peptide-based therapeutics. Cone are considered to specialized predators that have evolved the most sophisticated peptide chemistry and neuropharmacology system for their own biological purposes by producing venoms which contains a structural functional diversity neurotoxins. These neurotoxins or conotoxins often small cysteine-rich peptides shown highly selective ligands wide range ion channels receptors. Local habitat conditions constituted barriers preventing spreading Conus species occurring along coast South Africa. Due scarceness, these remain, therefore, extremely poorly studied. In this work, two African snails, pictus, vermivorous snail natalis, molluscivorous snail, been characterized in depth. total, 26 novel were identified. Comparing both interesting differences observed regarding venom composition molecular characteristics components.