小柯机器人

美国基因泰克公司Somasekar Seshagiri小组揭示了印度眼镜蛇参考基因组和转录组，其为毒液毒素的综合鉴定提供参考。相关论文在线发表在2020年1月6日的《自然—遗传学》上。

研究人员报道了眼镜蛇属印度眼镜蛇（Naja naja）从头开始的近染色体基因组，这是一种含剧毒的蛇、其对医学有重要意义。研究人员利用顺序组装测序的方法对其223.35 Mb的碱基进行了测序，其中含有95％的基因组。在23248个预测的蛋白质编码基因中，含有12346个毒腺表达基因构成的“毒液组”，其中包括来自33个毒素家族的139个基因。在139个毒素基因中，有19个“毒液组特异性毒素”（VST）具有毒液腺特异性表达，并且可能含有编码最小核心毒液效应蛋白的基因。利用重组VST的方法表达重构的合成毒液将有助于安全有效合成抗蛇毒血清的发现。此外，该基因组还可作为蛇基因组的参考，支持进化研究并实现毒液演化药物的发现。

据介绍，蛇咬毒害是一种严重却被忽视的热带病，每年造成约100,000人死亡。对毒素基因进行高质量、全面的基因组表征将有助于开发有效的人源化重组抗蛇毒血清。

附：英文原文

Title: The Indian cobra reference genome and transcriptome enables comprehensive identification of venom toxins

Author: Kushal Suryamohan, Sajesh P. Krishnankutty, Joseph Guillory, Matthew Jevit, Markus S. Schrder, Meng Wu, Boney Kuriakose, Oommen K. Mathew, Rajadurai C. Perumal, Ivan Koludarov, Leonard D. Goldstein, Kate Senger, Mandumpala Davis Dixon, Dinesh Velayutham, Derek Vargas, Subhra Chaudhuri, Megha Muraleedharan, Ridhi Goel, Ying-Jiun J. Chen, Aakrosh Ratan, Peter Liu, Brendan Faherty, Guillermo de la Rosa, Hiroki Shibata, Miriam Baca, Meredith Sagolla, James Ziai, Gus A. Wright, Domagoj Vucic, Sangeetha Mohan, Aju Antony, Jeremy Stinson, Donald S. Kirkpatrick, Rami N. Hannoush, Steffen Durinck, Zora Modrusan, Eric W. Stawiski, Kristen Wiley, Terje Raudsepp, R. Manjunatha Kini, Arun Zachariah, Somasekar Seshagiri

Issue&Volume: 2020-01-06

Abstract: Snakebite envenoming is a serious and neglected tropical disease that kills ~100,000people annually. High-quality, genome-enabled comprehensive characterization of toxin genes will facilitate development of effective humanized recombinant antivenom. We report a de novo near-chromosomal genome assembly of Naja naja, the Indian cobra, a highly venomous, medically important snake. Our assembly has a scaffold N50 of 223.35Mb, with 19scaffolds containing 95% of the genome. Of the 23,248predicted protein-coding genes, 12,346venom-gland-expressed genes constitute the ‘venom-ome’ and this included 139genes from 33toxin families. Among the 139toxin genes were 19‘venom-ome-specific toxins’ (VSTs) that showed venom-gland-specific expression, and these probably encode the minimal core venom effector proteins. Synthetic venom reconstituted through recombinant VST expression will aid in the rapid development of safe and effective synthetic antivenom. Additionally, our genome could serve as a reference for snake genomes, support evolutionary studies and enable venom-driven drug discovery.

DOI: 10.1038/s41588-019-0559-8

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-019-0559-8

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