Feature Review in Animal Venoms: Venom Apparatus Anatomy, Mode of Action/Delivery Mechanisms, and Major Toxin Families

A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Venoms".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 1999

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Venom Evolution Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
Interests: venom molecular evolution; phylogenetics and structure–function relationships; toxins
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Institut des Biomolécules Max Mousseron (UMR 5247), Université Montpellier, CNRS, Place Eugène Bataillon, CEDEX 05, 34095 Montpellier, France
Interests: venoms; conotoxins; peptides; proteomics; transcriptomics; drug discovery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As Section Editor-in-Chief and Section Associate Editor of the Section “Animal Venoms” of Toxins, we are pleased to announce this Special Issue on “Feature Review in Animal Venoms: Venom Apparatus Anatomy, Mode of Action/Delivery Mechanisms, and Major Toxin Families”. This Special Issue will be a collection of reviews and systematic reviews from top researchers in the field describing and covering essential knowledge for venomous animal group (spiders, scorpions, snakes, cone snails, cnidarians, hymenopterans, fish, etc.) that include general venom apparatus anatomy, venom mode of action, and major toxin families. Therefore, for each group, the authors will detail the organization of the venom apparatus, including all organs involved and some specific histological features, the envenomation process and venom delivery mechanisms, and finally, the major toxin families, including their pharmacology and proposed ecological role.

This Special Issue aims to publish high-quality review papers, which will serve as a reference collection for researchers.

Feel free to contact us or the Section Managing Editor Mr. Jet Li ([email protected]) if you have any requests. We look forward to receiving your strong contributions.

Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
Dr. Sebastien Dutertre
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxins is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • venom
  • apparatus anatomy
  • delivery mechanism
  • mode of action
  • toxin

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

30 pages, 9946 KiB  
Review
Predatory and Defensive Strategies in Cone Snails
by Zahrmina Ratibou, Nicolas Inguimbert and Sébastien Dutertre
Toxins 2024, 16(2), 94; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/toxins16020094 - 07 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1576
Abstract
Cone snails are carnivorous marine animals that prey on fish (piscivorous), worms (vermivorous), or other mollusks (molluscivorous). They produce a complex venom mostly made of disulfide-rich conotoxins and conopeptides in a compartmentalized venom gland. The pharmacology of cone snail venom has been increasingly [...] Read more.
Cone snails are carnivorous marine animals that prey on fish (piscivorous), worms (vermivorous), or other mollusks (molluscivorous). They produce a complex venom mostly made of disulfide-rich conotoxins and conopeptides in a compartmentalized venom gland. The pharmacology of cone snail venom has been increasingly investigated over more than half a century. The rising interest in cone snails was initiated by the surprising high human lethality rate caused by the defensive stings of some species. Although a vast amount of information has been uncovered on their venom composition, pharmacological targets, and mode of action of conotoxins, the venom–ecology relationships are still poorly understood for many lineages. This is especially important given the relatively recent discovery that some species can use different venoms to achieve rapid prey capture and efficient deterrence of aggressors. Indeed, via an unknown mechanism, only a selected subset of conotoxins is injected depending on the intended purpose. Some of these remarkable venom variations have been characterized, often using a combination of mass spectrometry and transcriptomic methods. In this review, we present the current knowledge on such specific predatory and defensive venoms gathered from sixteen different cone snail species that belong to eight subgenera: Pionoconus, Chelyconus, Gastridium, Cylinder, Conus, Stephanoconus, Rhizoconus, and Vituliconus. Further studies are needed to help close the gap in our understanding of the evolved ecological roles of many cone snail venom peptides. Full article
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