Conotoxin Diversity in the Venom Gland Transcriptome of the Magician's Cone, Pionoconus magus

The transcriptomes of the venom glands of two individuals of the magician's cone, , from Okinawa (Japan) were sequenced, assembled, and annotated. In addition, RNA-seq raw reads available at the SRA database from one additional specimen of from the Philippines were also assembled and annotated. The total numbers of identified conotoxin precursors and hormones per specimen were 118, 112, and 93. The three individuals shared only five identical sequences whereas the two specimens from Okinawa had 30 sequences in common. The total number of distinct conotoxin precursors and hormones for was 275, and were assigned to 53 conotoxin precursor and hormone superfamilies, two of which were new based on their divergent signal region. The superfamilies that had the highest number of precursors were M (42), O1 (34), T (27), A (18), O2 (17), and F (13), accounting for 55% of the total diversity. The D superfamily, previously thought to be exclusive of vermivorous cones was found in and contained a highly divergent mature region. Similarly, the A superfamily alpha 4/3 was found in despite the fact that it was previously postulated to be almost exclusive of the genus . Differential expression analyses of compared to , the only fish-hunting cone from the Atlantic Ocean revealed that M and A2 superfamilies appeared to be more expressed in the former whereas the O2 superfamily was more expressed in the latter.