Transcriptome analysis of expressed sequence tags from the venom glands of the fish Thalassophryne nattereri

Thalassophryne nattereri (niquim) is a venomous fish found on the northern and northeastern coasts of Brazil. Every year, hundreds of humans are affected by the poison, which causes excruciating local pain, edema, and necrosis, and can lead to permanent disabilities. In experimental models, T. nattereri venom induces edema and nociception, which are correlated to human symptoms and dependent on venom kininogenase activity; myotoxicity; impairment of blood flow; platelet lysis and cytotoxicity on endothelial cells. These effects were observed with minute amounts of venom. To characterize the primary structure of T. nattereri venom toxins, a list of transcripts within the venom gland was made using the expressed sequence tag (EST) strategy. Here we report the analysis of 775 ESTs that were obtained from a directional cDNA library of T. nattereri venom gland. Of these ESTs, 527 (68%) were related to sequences previously described. These were categorized into 10 groups according to their biological functions. Sequences involved in gene and protein expression accounted for 14.3% of the ESTs, reflecting the important role of protein synthesis in this gland. Other groups included proteins engaged in the assembly of disulfide bonds (0.5%), chaperones involved in the folding of nascent proteins (1.4%), and sequences related to clusterin (1.5%), as well as transcripts related to calcium binding proteins (1.0%). We detected a large cluster (1.3%) related to cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART), a peptide involved in the regulation of food intake. Surprisingly, several retrotransposon-like sequences (1.0%) were found in the library. It may be that their presence accounts for some of the variation in venom toxins. The toxin category (18.8%) included natterins (18%), which are a new group of kininogenases recently described by our group, and a group of C-type lectins (0.8%). In addition, a considerable number of sequences (32%) was not related to sequences in the databases, which indicates that a great number of new toxins and proteins are still to be discovered from this fish venom gland.