Structure, Function and Evolution of Conotoxins
A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Venoms".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 1286
Special Issue Editors
Interests: Conotoxins; structure-function relationships; recombinant expression systems for animal toxins; disulfide-bond formation
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Marine snails of the genus Conus produce complex venoms that contain a wide variety of bioactive peptide toxins, known as conotoxins. Conotoxins are highly diverse in sequence and are rich in disulfide bonds that are crucial for structural stability. They often target cell surface receptors and channels to disrupt prey physiology. In recent years, we have seen a surge in available toxin sequence data obtained using transcriptomics and proteomics approaches. This vast resource presents a range of exciting possibilities for the field, but at the same time illuminates the relative paucity of available structural and functional information.
This Special Issue is dedicated to research that expands our knowledge about conotoxin structure, function, and evolution, and the intriguing interplay between the three. Covering a broad range of topics, this Special Issue will include papers that investigate conotoxins from poorly characterized toxin families, as well as detailed accounts of structure–function relationships in toxins from well-known families. We also encourage submissions that describe conoidean toxins other than conotoxins within these same overarching topics. Moreover, we welcome contributions describing the development of new methodologies concerning, for instance, the production of conotoxins, the identification of their molecular targets, the analysis of post-translational modifications, and the improved structural prediction of disulfide-rich peptides. Review articles that describe existing knowledge and present current challenges in the field, as well as ideas for future research, are encouraged.
Prof. Dr. Lars Ellgaard
Dr. Thomas Lund Koch
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- conotoxins
- conoidean toxins
- disulfide bonds
- functional assays
- molecular evolution
- phylogenetics
- structure–activity relationship
- structure determination
- structure prediction
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