Proteomic analyses of the unexplored sea anemone Bunodactis verrucosa

Cnidarian toxic products, particularly peptide toxins, constitute a promising target for biomedicine research. Indeed, cnidarians are considered as the largest phylum of generally toxic animals. However, research on peptides and toxins of sea anemones is still limited. Moreover, most of the toxins from sea anemones have been discovered by classical purification approaches. Recently, high-throughput methodologies have been used for this purpose but in other Phyla. Hence, the present work was focused on the proteomic analyses of whole-body extract from the unexplored sea anemone Bunodactis verrucosa. The proteomic analyses applied were based on two methods: two-dimensional gel electrophoresis combined with MALDI-TOF/TOF and shotgun proteomic approach. In total, 413 proteins were identified, but only eight proteins were identified from gel-based analyses. Such proteins are mainly involved in basal metabolism and biosynthesis of antibiotics as the most relevant pathways. In addition, some putative toxins including metalloproteinases and neurotoxins were also identified. These findings reinforce the significance of the production of antimicrobial compounds and toxins by sea anemones, which play a significant role in defense and feeding. In general, the present study provides the first proteome map of the sea anemone B. verrucosa stablishing a reference for future studies in the discovery of new compounds. © 2018 by the authors.

Acknowledgments: Dany Domínguez Pérez was supported by a Ph.D. grant (SFRH/BD/80592/2011) from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal). A. Campos work were supported respectively by Postdoc grants SFRH/BPD/92978/2013 and SFRH/BPD/103683/2014 from the FCT. Armando A Rodríguez was supported by an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship (3.2-KUB/1153731 STP and the Collaborative Research Centre 1279 funded by the German Research Foundation). We are grateful to Isabel Cunha and Daniela Almeida from CIIMAR, FCUP, University of Porto, for the help in the identification, sampling and transporting of B. verrucosa specimens. To Barbara Frazão, from Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, Lisbon, Portugal for suggestions and by providing information related the species studied. This study was funded in part 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 project PTDC/AAG-GLO/6887/2014 (POCI-01-0124-FEDER-016845), and by the Structured Programs of R&D&I INNOVMAR—Innovation and Sustainability in the Management and Exploitation of Marine Resources (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000035, Research Line NOVELMAR) and CORAL NORTE (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000036), and funded by the Northern Regional Operational Program (NORTE2020) through the ERDF.