根據(jù)古代瑪雅人的說法，分散在墨西哥和中美洲水池中的洞穴網(wǎng)絡(luò)是通往地下世界的通道,。生物學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn),，這些水體中居住著一種神秘的生物——科學(xué)界所知的第一種有毒的甲殼動物,。
Speleonectes tulumensis屬于漿足類動物，研究小組在1981年對該物種進(jìn)行了第一次描述,。在其自然棲息地觀察這些蒼白的,、沒有視力的微小動物是非常困難的，因為它們生活在對導(dǎo)航的潛水員來說危險重重且如迷宮般復(fù)雜的洞穴網(wǎng)絡(luò)之中,。盡管如此,，英國倫敦自然歷史博物館的研究人員Bjorn von Reumont 和Ronald Jenner等生物學(xué)家，還是發(fā)現(xiàn)了這些漿足蟲拋掉的許多空空的蝦殼,，根據(jù)推測這是它們在吃蝦后遺留下來的,。
2007年，研究人員就已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)這些動物前鉗的結(jié)構(gòu)就像皮下注射針頭一樣,。他們推測,，這些動物能夠通過該結(jié)構(gòu)將某些東西注射到獵物體內(nèi)。研究證明,，這個想法是正確的,，von Reumont 和Jenner將報告發(fā)表在《分子生物學(xué)與變遷》上。研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)：這些附著于針形結(jié)構(gòu)的貯液囊周邊都是肌肉組織,，這樣一來,，它們就可以通過針形結(jié)構(gòu)來泵吸液體。此外,，他們還發(fā)現(xiàn)位于這些漿足蟲身體中心位置的腺體能夠產(chǎn)生毒液,，同時它們還被連接到貯液囊。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推薦的英文摘要
Molecular Biology and Evolution doi: 10.1093/molbev/mst199
The first venomous crustacean revealed by transcriptomics and functional morphology: remipede venom glands express a unique toxin cocktail dominated by enzymes and a neurotoxin
Bjorn M. von Reumont, Alexander Blanke, Sandy Richter, Fernando Alvarez, Christoph Bleidorn and Ronald A. Jenner
Animal venoms have evolved many times. Venomous species are especially common in three of the four main groups of arthropods (Chelicerata, Myriapoda, Hexapoda), which together represent tens of thousands of species of venomous spiders, scorpions, centipedes and hymenopterans. Surprisingly, despite their great diversity of body plans there is no unambiguous evidence that any crustacean is venomous. We provide the first conclusive evidence that the aquatic, blind and cave-dwelling remipede crustaceans are venomous, and that venoms evolved in all four major arthropod groups. We produced a three-dimensional reconstruction of the venom delivery apparatus of the remipede Speleonectes tulumensis, showing that remipedes can inject venom in a controlled manner. A transcriptomic profile of its venom glands shows that they express a unique cocktail of transcripts coding for known venom toxins, including a diversity of enzymes and a probable paralytic neurotoxin very similar to one described from spider venom. We screened a transcriptomic library obtained from whole animals and identified a non-toxin paralogue of the remipede neurotoxin that is not expressed in the venom glands. This allowed us to reconstruct its probable evolutionary origin, and underlines the importance of incorporating data derived from non-venom gland tissue to elucidate the evolution of candidate venom proteins. This first glimpse into the venom of a crustacean and primitively aquatic arthropod reveals conspicuous differences from the venoms of other predatory arthropods such as centipedes, scorpions and spiders, and contributes valuable information for ultimately disentangling the many factors shaping the biology and evolution of venoms and venomous species.
