Venom Gland Peptides of Arthropods from the Brazilian Cerrado Biome Unveiled by Transcriptome Analysis

Animal venoms are rich sources of pharmacological active molecules. Less than 10% of arthropod venom components have been characterized so far, reinforcing the importance of prospective studies. The Cerrado, in the Midwest Region of Brazil, is the second-largest biome in Brazil presenting vast biodiversity of arthropod species with venom glands. In this scenario, in a project called “Inovatoxin”, active principles present in the venom of three biodiversity representative arthropod animals from this region were characterized structurally and functionally, using proteomic and transcriptomic prospective strategies. High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) is among the strategies to provide the raw material to help identify bioactive peptides present in these arthropods’ venom. This work proposes a workflow that allowed to annotate a total of 230 venom peptides from the Brazilian arthropods spider Acanthoscurria paulensis, social wasp Polybia sp., and scorpion Tityus fasciolatus. Along with these results, abundant data on the metabolism of the three species were also obtained. These results extend knowledge of venoms, contributing to new perspectives on rational therapeutic measures to treat accidents with these animals, and also on academic and biotechnological applications.