Background: Lack of complete genomic data of
Bothrops jararaca impedes
molecular biology research focusing on biotechnological applications of
venom gland components. Identification of full-length
coding regions of
genes is crucial for the correct
molecular cloning design.
Methods: RNA was extracted from the
venom gland of one
adult female specimen of
Bothrops jararaca .
Deep sequencing of the
mRNA library was performed using Illumina NextSeq 500 platform. De novo assembly of B.
jararaca transcriptome was done using Trinity. Annotation was performed using Blast2GO. All predicted
proteins after
clustering step were blasted against non-redundant
protein database of NCBI using BLASTP.
Metabolic pathways present in the
transcriptome were annotated using the KAAS-KEGG Automatic Annotation Server. Toxins were identified in the B.
jararaca predicted
proteome using BLASTP against all
protein sequences obtained from
Animal Toxin Annotation Project from Uniprot KB/Swiss-Pro database. Figures and
data visualization were performed using ggplot2 package in R
language environment .
Results: We described the in-depth
transcriptome analysis of B.
jararaca venom gland, in which 76,765 de novo assembled
isoforms , 96,044 transcribed
genes and 41,196 unique
proteins were identified. The most abundant transcript was the
zinc metalloproteinase -
disintegrin -like
jararhagin . Moreover, we identified 78 distinct functional classes of
proteins , including toxins, inhibitors and
tumor suppressors. Other
venom proteins identified were the hemolytic lethal factors stonustoxin and verrucotoxin.
Conclusion: It is believed that the application of
deep sequencing to the
analysis of
snake venom transcriptomes may represent invaluable insight on their biotechnological potential focusing on candidate molecules.