Addendum: Aird, S.D. et al. Coralsnake Venomics: Analyses of Venom Gland Transcriptomes and Proteomes of Six Brazilian Taxa. Toxins 2017, 9(6), 187

Abstract

Following publication of this paper, Dr. Daniel Dashevsky discovered to our chagrin, that the transcriptomic datasets uploaded to the DNA Databank of Japan (DDBJ) contained numerous complete 3FTx sequences that were not included in our paper. A protracted investigation determined that owing to their brevity, protein predictions of many 3FTx sequences and a small number of PLA2 sequences were rejected by Transdecoder. Since all sequences from the study have been in the public domain since the outset, the purpose of this addendum is simply to add the previously unpublished sequences to the paper. These do not alter our previous data analysis, and no additional analysis is included. The Figures S1–S5 herein compare all of the complete 3FTx and PLA2 sequences identified in this study with previously published sequences. Duplicate transcripts, fragments, and partial sequences are not included. New World coralsnake venoms contain an astonishing variety of three-finger toxins (3FTxs), including toxins with novel disulfide bond arrangements (see main text). These toxins include forms with 8, 9, 10, and 11 cysteines. The six Brazilian Micrurus taxa investigated here invest more heavily in 3FTxs than in PLA2s. 3FTxs were identified using Megablast in Geneious 8.1.9. Multiple 3FTx sequences with signal peptides, representing all cysteine patterns discovered to date, were used as query sequences in an effort to avoid overlooking any complete sequences. Sequences were aligned using MUSCLE, and alignments were then further refined by eye. 3FTx sequences are presented here without signal peptides according to cysteine class, and they are also compared with sequences pre-existing in the literature.