Hang Fai Kwok^1,2, Tianbao Chen¹, Craig Ivanyi³ and Chris Shaw^1,2

¹Molecular Therapeutics Research, School of Pharmacy, Medical Biology Centre, Queen’s University Belfast, BT9 7BL Northern Ireland, U.K. ²School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland, U.K. ³The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona 85743-8918, U.S.A.

Abstract

Amphibian defensive skin secretions and reptile venoms are rich sources of bioactive peptides with potential pharmacological/pharmaceutical applications. As amphibian and reptile populations are in rapid global decline, our research group has been developing analytical methods that permit generation of robust molecular data from non-invasive skin secretion samples and venom samples. While previously we have demonstrated that parallel proteome and venom gland transcriptome analyses can be performed on such samples, here we report the presence of DNA that facilitates the more widely-used applications of gene sequencing, such as molecular phylogenetics, in a non-invasive manner that circumvents specimen sacrifice. From this “surrogate” tissue, we acquired partial 12S and 16S rRNA gene sequences that are presented for illustration purposes. Thus from a single sample of amphibian skin secretion and reptile venom, robust and complementary proteome, transcriptome and genome data can be generated for applications in diverse scientific disciplines.

Interview:

Read an interview with Dr Kwok here.