{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,16]],"date-time":"2026-02-16T20:57:53Z","timestamp":1771275473185,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2013,10,28]],"date-time":"2013-10-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1382918400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Toxins"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Although snake venoms have been the subject of intense research, primarily because of their tremendous potential as a bioresource for design and development of therapeutic compounds, some specific groups of snakes, such as the genus Atractaspis, have been completely neglected. To date only limited number of toxins, such as sarafotoxins have been well characterized from this lineage. In order to investigate  the molecular diversity of venom from Atractaspis aterrima\u2014the slender burrowing asp, we utilized a high-throughput transcriptomic approach completed with an original bioinformatics analysis pipeline. Surprisingly, we found that Sarafotoxins do not constitute the major ingredient of the transcriptomic cocktail; rather a large number of previously well-characterized snake venom-components were identified. Notably, we recovered a large diversity of three-finger toxins (3FTxs), which were found to have evolved under the significant influence of positive selection. From the normalized and non-normalized transcriptome libraries, we were able to evaluate the relative abundance of the different toxin groups, uncover rare transcripts, and gain new insight into the transcriptomic machinery. In addition to previously characterized toxin families, we were able to detect numerous  highly-transcribed compounds that possess all the key features of venom-components and may constitute new classes of toxins.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/toxins5111948","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2013,10,28]],"date-time":"2013-10-28T12:00:27Z","timestamp":1382961627000},"page":"1948-1964","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Atractaspis aterrima Toxins: The First Insight into the Molecular Evolution of Venom in Side-Stabbers"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"5","author":[{"given":"Yves","family":"Terrat","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Montr\u00e9al University, Research Institute in Plant Biology, Montreal Botanical Garden, Montreal, Qu\u00e9bec, Canada"}]},{"given":"Kartik","family":"Sunagar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CIMAR\/CIIMAR, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investiga\u00e7\u00e3o Marinha e Ambiental, Universidade do Porto, Rua dos Bragas, 177, 4050-123 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ci\u00eancias, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, 4169-007, Porto, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Bryan","family":"Fry","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Venom Evolution Lab, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia"},{"name":"Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia"}]},{"given":"Timothy","family":"Jackson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Venom Evolution Lab, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia"},{"name":"Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia"}]},{"given":"Holger","family":"Scheib","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Venom Evolution Lab, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia"}]},{"given":"Rudy","family":"Fourmy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Alpha Biotoxine, Montroeul-au-bois B-7911, Belgium"}]},{"given":"Marion","family":"Verdenaud","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CEA, IBiTec-S, Service de Pharmacologie et d'Immunoanalyse, Laboratoire d'Ing\u00e9nierie des Anticorps pour la Sant\u00e9, Gif-sur-Yvette, F-91191, France"}]},{"given":"Guillaume","family":"Blanchet","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CEA, IBiTec-S, Service d'Ing\u00e9nierie Mol\u00e9culaire des Prot\u00e9ines, Laboratoire de Toxinologie Mol\u00e9culaire et Biotechnologies, Gif-sur-Yvette, F-91191, France"}]},{"given":"Agostinho","family":"Antunes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CIMAR\/CIIMAR, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investiga\u00e7\u00e3o Marinha e Ambiental, Universidade do Porto, Rua dos Bragas, 177, 4050-123 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ci\u00eancias, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, 4169-007, Porto, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Frederic","family":"Ducancel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CEA, IBiTec-S, Service de Pharmacologie et d'Immunoanalyse, Laboratoire d'Ing\u00e9nierie des Anticorps pour la Sant\u00e9, Gif-sur-Yvette, F-91191, France"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2013,10,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"434","DOI":"10.1016\/j.toxicon.2012.02.013","article-title":"The structural and functional diversification of the Toxicofera reptile venom system","volume":"60","author":"Fry","year":"2012","journal-title":"Toxicon"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2828","DOI":"10.1007\/s00018-005-5286-x","article-title":"Endothelin-like peptides","volume":"62","author":"Ducancel","year":"2005","journal-title":"Cell. 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