Fish-hunting cone snail disrupts prey’s glucose homeostasis with weaponized mimetics of somatostatin and insulin

Venomous animals have evolved diverse molecular mechanisms to incapacitate prey and defend against predators. Most venom components disrupt nervous, locomotor, and cardiovascular systems or cause tissue damage. The discovery that certain fish-hunting cone snails use weaponized insulins to induce hypoglycemic shock in prey highlights a unique example of venomous strategies. Here, we show that, in addition to insulin, the fish-hunting cone snail, Conus geographus, uses a selective somatostatin receptor 2 (SSTR2) agonist that blocks the release of the insulin-counteracting hormone glucagon, thereby exacerbating insulin-induced hypoglycemia in prey. The nerve toxin, Conotoxin mGn, exists in several proteoforms with a minimized vertebrate somatostatin-like motif connected to a heavily glycosylated N-terminal region. We demonstrate that the toxin’s N-terminal tail closely mimics a glycosylated somatostatin from fish pancreas and is crucial for activating the fish SSTR2. Collectively, these findings provide a stunning example of chemical mimicry, highlight the combinatorial nature of venom components, and establish glucose homeostasis as an effective target for prey capture.

Ho Yan Yeung, Iris Bea L Ramiro, Daniel B Andersen, Thomas Lund Koch, Alexander Hamilton, Walden E Bjorn-Yoshimoto, Samuel Espino, Sergey Y Vakhrushev, Kasper B Pedersen, Noortje de Haan, Agnes L Hipgrave Ederveen, Baldomero M Olivera, Jakob G Knudsen, Hans Bräuner-Osborne, Katrine T Schjoldager, Jens Juul Holst, Helena Safavi-Hemami