What was the research project?
The research project described focused on trying to
identify the definitive set of toxins that are responsible for the
severe effects of Chironex fleckeri or box
jellyfish stings. This was done using both
Illumina genome sequencing of the transcriptome from the tentacles
and analysis of the proteome, done mainly using tandem mass
spectrometry. This was essential as there was, prior to this study,
not database containing the genome or transcriptome of C.
fleckeri, so a combination of both proteomic and
transcriptomic analysis was essential for the then proteomic
analysis of the venom of C. fleckeri to determine exactly
which sequences were those of toxins (Ashford, 2015).
Were they testing a hypothesis or doing discovery
science?
This project was an example of discovery science as
the researchers were trying to discover the proteins involved.
Because they were not testing whether or not specific genes
contributed to the toxic sting effects, this does not qualify as a
hypothesis being tested. However, their analysis did confirm the
presence of a number of previously characterized toxin proteins and
a handful of uncharacterized proteins from the same family.
What genomic technology was used in the project?
The researchers in this group utilized a number of
genomic technologies for this project. Firstly, they used Illumina
sequencing to sequence the transcriptome isolated from the tentacles
of the C. fleckeri that they were studying. This was done
through a de novo assembly of the sequence, as there was no
previously sequenced data to compare their sequence to (Ashford,
2015).They also used mass spectrometry to compare isolated toxins to
sequences in order to isolate which sequences were representative of
the proteins that they were looking for. The researchers also
utilized the UniProt animal toxin database and BLAST technology to
help identify which sequences had strong links to previously
sequenced, closely related toxins (Brinkman et al., 2015).
What was the take home message?
This project allowed for the investigators to discover
the proteins responsible for the human response to being stung by a
C. fleckeri as well as allowing them a jumping board for
future research. These future studies will focus on the proteins
within humans that interact with these toxins to inhibit their
effects as well as a comparison with other types of Jellyfish
venoms, to see similarities and differences.
What is your evaluation of the project?
This project provides and interesting insight into the
mechanisms behind the potent C. fleckeri venom. While this
project successfully identifies some significant families of toxins
that exist in the venom, the lack of previously sequenced data makes
it harder for the reader to have faith in the accuracy of the data.
The paper itself comments on the fact that a lot of the transcripts
had poor read support, indicating an incomplete assembly occurred
(Brinkman et al., 2015). Furthermore, the process of mass
spectometry destroys the sample that is being examined. The
comparison using BLAST was a helpful alternative to the lack of an
entirely sequenced transcriptome, but the paper itself mentioned
that around 40 percent of the transcripts did not match the top 8-
percent of hits, suggesting a necessity for further characterization
of the transcriptome (Brinkman et al., 2015). Finally, while the
paper addresses some of the divergences seen in their data, they
fail to fully explore alternative possibilities for their results.
