Functional and Proteomic insights into Aculeata venoms: Evolutionary and Toxinological implications

Transcripts identified from the venom gland transcriptome of A. mellifera were found to have significant homology between the venom proteins of already sequenced toxins in the Uniprot database. The absence of significant variation in the transcripts sequences highlights that honeybee venom, as a defensive venom, is not under the same selection pressures that predatory venoms are. Instead, there was evidence of negative selection pressure against diversification, which is consistent with defensive venom being highly conserved in other lineages. The finding of multiple transcripts that match various allergenic peptides is consistent with bee venoms being known to cause mainly inflammatory and immunological reactions in the victim. Despite the identification of most of the major venom toxins, some of the previously described venom compounds were not able to be recovered. One of these was the antigen 5-like wasp venom paralog which was absent from the venom gland transcriptome. This venom protein is known to be seasonally expressed which may be the reason for its absence in this transcriptome.