**8. Conclusion**

(a) (b)

**Figure 8.** Classification of ESTs from *D. quadriceps* venom gland cDNA library on their putative functions (A). Relative

An Integrated View of the Molecular Recognition and Toxinology - From Analytical Procedures to Biomedical

As a matter of example, the most abundant toxin was dinoponera toxin (DnTx). The dinopo‐ neratoxin whole sequence (accounting for 27% of the total clones analysed) was identified in this cDNA library. Deduced aminoacid sequences (DnTx01 and DnTx02), corresponding to two cDNA isoform precursos, from *D. quadricipes* transcriptome (this work) and three mature venom peptides (DnTx\_Da-3105, DnTx\_Da-3177 and TX01\_DINAS - GenBank accession numbers GI:294863162, GI:294863159 and GI:294863158, respectively) from *D. australis* [30] were aligned with ClustalW software using default parameters (http://www.ebi.ac.uk). DnTx01 and DnTx02 are represented with their respective signal peptides and pro-peptides, in which putative cleavage sites are shown in green and blue, respectively, according to SignalP software (http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/SignalP) and proteomic data. In the alignment A is clearly observed that DnTX01 shares high similarity with DnTx\_Da-3105 and DnTx\_Da-3177, whereas the mature DnTx02 and TX01\_DINAS are highly similar to each other (part B).

**Figure 9.** Alignment of dinoponeratoxin precursors and mature peptides from *D. quadricipes* and *D. australis* using

ClustalW software (http://www.ebi.ac.uk).

proportion of toxin-encoding, non-toxing encoding and no significant hit ESTs (B).

Applications

216

Taking into account the information presented in this chapter, a second question arises and should be answered in the near future: "Is there any hymenopteran venom component that could be used as a biotechnological tool?" The majority of works done to discovery new bio‐ technological tools from hymenopteran venoms were performed using proteomic science analysis, probably because ants apparatus venom is so hard to identify and dissect. Never‐ theless, the size of some poneromorph primitive ants may permit subdue these difficulties allowing us to construct a cDNA library and thus opening new perspectives to better under‐ stand the biology of ants as well as to analyze the properties of the venom in the search for new molecules with pharmacological and / or biotechnological potential.

Thus, its clear that further work is necessary to understand ant venom, as well venoms from hy‐ menopteran, since several precursors comprises hypothetical and predicted toxins/polypepti‐ des with unknown function. Moreover, a deep functional analysis in the coming period will be made to comprehend the effects presented by total venom and peptides isolated from it.
