The Lethal Toxin from Australian Funnel-Web Spiders Is Encoded by an Intronless Gene
Figure 5
Architecture of genes encoding ICK toxins from Australian funnel-web spiders.
Alignment of cDNA and gDNA sequences of (A) ω-hexatoxin-Hi2a and (B) U3-hexatoxin-Hi1a. Stop codons are indicated by an asterisk. A schematic of the toxin precursors showing the signal peptide, propeptide, and mature toxin in yellow, blue, and purple, respectively, is shown above the sequences. The protein sequences (i.e., a translation of the cDNA/gDNA) are shown sandwiched between the cDNA and gDNA sequences. There are several codons where a difference between the cDNA and gDNA sequences leads to a difference in the sequence of the encoded protein; in these cases the amino acid encoded by the cDNA and gDNA are shown in black and red, respectively. The “GR” sequence underlined in green at the C-terminus of the mature-toxin region of ω-hexatoxin-Hi2a in panel (A) is a C-terminal amidation signal [34].