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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open
Journal article
Comparative venomics suggests an evolutionary adaption of spider venom from predation to defense
Communications Biology, Vol.8, pp.1-11
2025
PMID: 41131346
Abstract
Most spiders deploy paralytic venom for prey capture, but adults of the Nurse´s thorn finger (Cheiracanthium punctorium) instead produce a predominantly defensive venom to safeguard their offspring. Here, we characterize the molecular repertoire of C. punctorium venom to shed light on its evolutionary history. Unlike venom in other spiders, C. punctorium venom mostly comprises neurotoxic double-domain neurotoxin 19 family (CSTX) peptides and enzymes, such as phospholipase A2 (PLA2). Comparative venomics in four spiders representing two infraorders shows that CSTXs arise following the mygalomorph–araneomorph split ~300 mya by means of ancestral gene duplication and functional specialization. A gene fusion event then appeared to have merged CSTXs from two distinct clades to form the double-domain toxin. PLA2 proteins are convergently recruited to C. punctorium to fulfil a defensive function and are strikingly similar to proalgesic PLA2 proteins in bee venom. These complex, multimodal molecular innovations in venom systems highlight nature’s tendency to use the same molecular solutions for similar ecological challenges across diverse animal lineages.
Details
- Title
- Comparative venomics suggests an evolutionary adaption of spider venom from predation to defense
- Authors
- Tim Lüddecke (Corresponding Author) - Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied EcologySabine Hurka - Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied EcologyJosephine Dresler - Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied EcologyThomas Lübcke - Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde GörlitzVolker von Wirth - Theraphosid Research Team (Germany)Günter Lochnit - Justus-Liebig-Universität GießenThomas Timm - Justus-Liebig-Universität GießenVolker Herzig - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringAndreas Vilcinskas - Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen
- Publication details
- Communications Biology, Vol.8, pp.1-11
- Publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1038/s42003-025-09015-6
- ISSN
- 2399-3642
- PMID
- 41131346
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Data Availability
- Raw proteomic data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD061529. Raw transcriptomic data have been uploaded to the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) (Study PRJEB86488). The following data are available as supplements: Information on sampled spiders and their sequencing (Supplementary Table 1), proteotranscriptomic analysis of C. punctorium (Supplementary Data 1), Transcriptomic analysis of M. menardi (Supplementary Data 2), P. reduncus (Supplementary Data 3), L. sclopetarius (Supplementary Data 4), T. vulgaris (Supplementary Data 5), as well as the retrieved optimal phylogenetic tree (Supplementary Data 6). Structural models generated in Alphafold 3 are available online in the Dryad database (https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fn2z34v7t). All other data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
- Grant note
- This project was funded by Hisayo Ito from the Winners of the 2017 JA Ōmura Awards for excellence. This work was supported by generous funding from the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art (HMWK) via the LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, granted to A.V.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Centre for Bioinnovation
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991175142202621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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