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National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 6(112), p. 1743-1748, 2015

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1423857112

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Specialized insulin is used for chemical warfare by fish-hunting cone snails

Journal article published in 2015 by Helena Safavi-Hemami, Joanna Gajewiak, Santhosh Karanth, Samuel D. Robinson, Beatrix Ueberheide, Adam D. Douglass, Amnon Schlegel, Julita S. Imperial, Maren Watkins, Pradip K. Bandyopadhyay, Mark Yandell, Qing Li, Anthony W. Purcell ORCID, Raymond S. Norton, Lars Ellgaard ORCID and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Significance The discovery and characterization of insulin, a key hormone of energy metabolism, provided a life-saving drug for diabetics. We show that insulin can be subverted for nefarious biological purposes: Venomous cone snails use specialized insulins to elicit hypoglycemic shock, facilitating capture of their fish prey. This finding extends our understanding of the chemical and functional diversity of venom components, such that the snail’s arsenal includes a diverse set of neurotoxins that alters neuronal circuitry, as well as components that override glucose homeostasis. The highly expressed venom insulins are distinct from molluscan insulins and exhibit remarkable similarity to fish insulins. They are the smallest of all insulins characterized from any source, potentially providing new insights into structure-function elements of insulin action.