Predicting antibacterial activity from snake venom proteomes

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 15; no. 1; p. e0226807
• Main Authors: Rheubert, Justin L, Meyer, Michael F, Strobel, Raeshelle M, Pasternak, Megan A, Charvat, Robert A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 24-01-2020; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Analysis; Animal behavior; Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antibacterial activity; Antibacterial agents; Antibiotic resistance; Antibiotics; Antimicrobial agents; Antivenins - pharmacology; Bacteria; Bacteria - drug effects; Bacteria - growth & development; Bibliographic literature; Biology; Biology and Life Sciences; Composition; Drug resistance; Gram stain; Keywords; Medicine and Health Sciences; Microbial drug resistance; Morphology; Peptides; Poisons; Prediction models; Properties (attributes); Protein composition; Protein families; Proteins; Proteome - analysis; Proteome - metabolism; Snake Venoms - pharmacology; Snakes; Snakes - metabolism; Venom; Venoms; Taiwan; United States > US; Ohio
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226807

The continued evolution of antibiotic resistance has increased the urgency for new antibiotic development, leading to exploration of non-traditional sources. In particular, snake venom has garnered attention for its potent antibacterial properties. Numerous studies describing snake venom proteomic composition as well as antibiotic efficacy have created an opportunity to synthesize relationships between venom proteomes and their antibacterial properties. Using literature reported values from peer-reviewed studies, our study generated models to predict efficacy given venom protein family composition, snake taxonomic family, bacterial Gram stain, bacterial morphology, and bacterial respiration strategy. We then applied our predictive models to untested snake species with known venom proteomic compositions. Overall, our results provide potential protein families that serve as accurate predictors of efficacy as well as promising organisms in terms of antibacterial properties of venom. The results from this study suggest potential future research trajectories for antibacterial properties in snake venom by offering hypotheses for a variety of taxa.