Venomics and Peptidomics of Palearctic vipers: Clade-wide analysis of seven taxa of the genera Vipera, Montivipera, Macrovipera and Daboia across Türkiye

Abstract

Snake venom variations are a crucial factor to understand the consequences of snakebite envenoming worldwide and therefore its important to know about toxin composition alterations between taxa. Palearctic vipers of the genera Vipera, Montivipera, Macrovipera and Daboia have high medical impacts across the Old World. One hotspot for their occurrence and diversity is Turkiye on the border between the continents, but many of their venoms remain still understudied. Here, we present the venom compositions of seven Turkish viper taxa. By complementary mass spectrometry-based bottom-up and top-down workflows, the venom profiles were investigated on proteomics and peptidomics level. This study includes the first venom descriptions of Vipera berus barani, Vipera darevskii, Montivipera bulgardaghica albizona and Montivipera xanthina, as well as first snake venomics profiles of Turkish Macrovipera lebetinus obtusa and Daboia palaestinae, including an in-depth reanalysis of Montivipera bulgardaghica bulgardaghica venom. Additionally, we identified the modular consensus sequence pEXW(PZ1-2P(EI)/(KV)PPLE for bradykinin-potentiating peptides (BPP) in viper venoms. For better insights into variations and potential impacts of medical significance the venoms were compared against other Palearctic viper proteomes, including the first genus-wide Montivipera venom comparison. This will help the risk assessment of snakebite envenoming by these vipers and aid in predicting the venoms pathophysiology and clinical treatments.