ArticleBMC molecular biology2007
The venom gland transcriptome of the Desert Massasauga rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus edwardsii): towards an understanding of venom composition among advanced snakes (Superfamily Colubroidea).
Article in BMC molecular biology, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 126 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Venom Variation as a Window into the Ecology and Evolution of Snakes.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Review
- Orphan Three-Finger Toxins from Snake Venoms: Unexplored Library of Novel Biological Ligands with Potential New Structures and Functions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Variations in "Functional Site" Residues and Classification of Three-Finger Neurotoxins in Snake Venoms.Toxins · 2025Review
- Distinct regulatory networks control toxin gene expression in elapid and viperid snakes.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- A Review of Rattlesnake Venoms.Toxins · 2023Review
- Article
- Bibliometric Analysis of Literature in Snake Venom-Related Research Worldwide (1933-2022).Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Biogeographic consequences of shifting climate for the western massasauga (Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Article
- Article
- Identification of a α-helical molten globule intermediate and structural characterization of β-cardiotoxin, an all β-sheet protein isolated from the venom of Ophiophagus hannah (king cobra).Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2019Article
- Snake Venom Peptides: Tools of Biodiscovery.Toxins · 2018Review
- Organic and Peptidyl Constituents of Snake Venoms: The Picture Is Vastly More Complex Than We Imagined.Toxins · 2018Article
- Coralsnake Venomics: Analyses of Venom Gland Transcriptomes and Proteomes of Six Brazilian Taxa.Toxins · 2017Article
- Article
- Trends in the Evolution of Snake Toxins Underscored by an Integrative Omics Approach to Profile the Venom of the Colubrid Phalotris mertensi.Genome biology and evolution · 2016Article
- Article
- Full-Length Venom Protein cDNA Sequences from Venom-Derived mRNA: Exploring Compositional Variation and Adaptive Multigene Evolution.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2016Article
- Stabilising the Integrity of Snake Venom mRNA Stored under Tropical Field Conditions Expands Research Horizons.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2016Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSnake venoms are complex mixtures of pharmacologically active proteins and peptides which belong to a small number of superfamilies. Global cataloguing of the venom transcriptome facilitates the identification of new families of toxins as well as helps in understanding the evolution of venom proteomes.
resultsWe have constructed a cDNA library of the venom gland of a threatened rattlesnake (a pitviper), Sistrurus catenatus edwardsii (Desert Massasauga), and sequenced 576 ESTs. Our results demonstrate a high abundance of serine proteinase and metalloproteinase transcripts, indicating that the disruption of hemostasis is a principle mechanism of action of the venom. In addition to the transcripts encoding common venom proteins, we detected two varieties of low abundance unique transcripts in the library; these encode for three-finger toxins and a novel toxin possibly generated from the fusion of two genes. We also observed polyadenylated ribosomal RNAs in the venom gland library, an interesting preliminary obsevation of this unusual phenomenon in a reptilian system.
conclusionThe three-finger toxins are characteristic of most elapid venoms but are rare in viperid venoms. We detected several ESTs encoding this group of toxins in this study. We also observed the presence of a transcript encoding a fused protein of two well-characterized toxins (Kunitz/BPTI and Waprins), and this is the first report of this kind of fusion in a snake toxin transcriptome. We propose that these new venom proteins may have ancillary functions for envenomation. The presence of a fused toxin indicates that in addition to gene duplication and accelerated evolution, exon shuffling or transcriptional splicing may also contribute to generating the diversity of toxins and toxin isoforms observed among snake venoms. The detection of low abundance toxins, as observed in this and other studies, indicates a greater compositional similarity of venoms (though potency will differ) among advanced snakes than has been previously recognized.
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