Isocation and characterization of conotoxins from the venom of Conus Planorbis and Conus Ferrugineus

The venom of marine gastropods belonging to the genus Conus has yielded numerous
structurally and functionally diverse peptidic components. The increase variety of
bioactive peptides identified in cone snail venoms is the product of the variety of
molecular adaptations taken by Conus species in evolving neuroactive molecules to suit
their diverse biological purposes. Toxins from cone snails are classified into two major
groups. One group consists of disulfide-rich peptides commonly termed conotoxins; the
second group comprises peptides with only one disulfide bond or none.
In this work, we present the discovery and characterization from the marine snails C.
planorbis and C. ferrugineus. Both species are commonly found in the Indo-Pacific region and are very similar and is not distinguishable by size and shape of the shell.
Novel P and T-Supefamiles were found in both species along with small linear peptides
with have a high frequency of tyrosine residues. Each chapter contains a detailed look at
the discovery process for the isolation and characterization of C. planorbis and C.
ferrugineus. At discussion part, we also compared the peptides isolated in this work with
other peptides from the literature.