Harnessing snake venom cardiotoxins for antimicrobial peptide discovery

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  Harnessing snake venom cardiotoxins for antimicrobial peptide discovery Abstract Snake venoms are a rich source of bioactive molecules with considerable potential for drug discovery. Cardiotoxins (CTXs) from cobras ( Naja spp.) are membrane-active venom proteins and promising templates for antimicrobial peptide development. Here, we combined two computational toxin-mining strategies to identify antimicrobial peptide candidates from CTXs. First, AMPA-guided sequence mining was used to detect encrypted antimicrobial regions within CTX sequences. Second, sequence alignment and consensus-sequence analysis were employed to generate peptides from a conserved CTX scaffold. Candidate peptides were prioritised using multiple machine learning- and deep learning-based antimicrobial peptide prediction tools, resulting in fourteen CTX-inspired peptides, including two modified derivatives of CTX-p5. Antimicrobial screening showed limited activity across the peptide panel, with CTX-p5 exhibiti...

Integrative taxonomy of the genus Nesticus in central Japan, with the description of a new species and redescriptions of N. echigonus and N. gondai (Araneae, Nesticidae)

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Integrative taxonomy of the genus Nesticus in central Japan, with the description of a new species and redescriptions of N. echigonus and N. gondai (Araneae, Nesticidae)

Abstract

Species of the genus Nesticus (Araneae, Nesticidae) in central Japan are revised based on morphological and molecular analyses of specimens collected from Niigata and Gunma Prefectures. Among them, a putative undescribed species was discovered having clearly distinguishable morphological characters from other known species in the same area. A phylogenetic analysis based on the mitochondrial COI gene was carried out using a maximum-likelihood method to confirm its distinctiveness. The new species, Nesticus yamabushi sp. nov., is described based on specimens of both sexes. Furthermore, we provide detailed redescriptions of two other closely related species, N. echigonus and N. gondai, to address the lack of information in their original descriptions and facilitate future identifications. This study enhances our understanding of the fauna and diversity of the genus Nesticus in central Japan and provides a foundation for future taxonomic research.

Nagai T, Ballarin F, Eguchi K (2026) Integrative taxonomy of the genus Nesticus in central Japan, with the description of a new species and redescriptions of N. echigonus and N. gondai (Araneae, Nesticidae). ZooKeys 1285: 125-145. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1285.202554