Analysis of Pelagia noctiluca proteome reveals a red fluorescent protein, a zinc Metalloproteinase and a Peroxiredoxin

Acknowledgements BF was funded by a PhD grant (SFRH/BD/48184/2008) from the Foundation for Science and Technology “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia” (FCT). AA was partially supported by the Strategic Funding UID/Multi/04423/2013 through national funds provided by FCT and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in the framework of the program PT2020, by the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program - COMPETE 2020 and by National Funds through the FCT under the projects PTDC/AAG-GLO/6887/2014 (POCI-01-0124-FEDER-016845) and PTDC/MAR-BIO/0440/2014 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016772), and by the Structured Program of R&D&I INNOVMAR - Innovation and Sustainability in the Management and Exploitation of Marine Resources (reference NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000035, Research Line NOVELMAR) and CORAL NORTE (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000036), funded by the Northern Regional Operational Program (NORTE2020) through the ERDF.

Pelagia noctiluca is the most venomous jellyfish in the Mediterranean Sea where it forms dense blooms. Although there is several published research on this species, until now none of the works has been focused on a complete protein profile of the all body constituents of this organism. Here, we have performed a detailed proteomics characterization of the major protein components expressed by P. noctiluca. With that aim, we have considered the study of jellyfish proteins involved in defense, body constituents and metabolism, and furthered explore the significance and potential application of such bioactive molecules. P. noctiluca body proteins were separated by1D SDS–PAGE and 2DE followed by characterization by nanoLC-MS/MS and MALDI-TOF/TOF techniques.Altogether, both methods revealed 68 different proteins, including a Zinc Metalloproteinase, a Red Fluorescent Protein (RFP) and a Peroxiredoxin. These three proteins were identified for the first time in P. noctiluca. Zinc Metalloproteinase was previously reported in the venom of other jellyfish species. Besides the proteins described above, the other 65 proteins found in P. noctiluca body content were identified and associated with its clinical significance. Among all the proteins identified in this work we highlight: Zinc metalloproteinase, which has a ShK toxin domain and therefore should be implicated in the sting toxicity of P. noctiluca.; the RFP which are a very important family of proteins due to its possible application as molecular markers; and last but not least the discovery of a Peroxiredoxin in this organism makes it a new natural resource of antioxidant and anti-UV radiation agents.

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