Taking the sting out of pain

Identification and characterisation of novel wasp mastoparans and chemotactic peptides from the venom of social wasp Polistes stigma (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae)

Polistes stigma is a common social wasp found in continental Southeast Asia. Despite its wide distribution and abundance, hitherto, there are no studies on small or medium molecular weight components of the venom. For the first time, this study has described the amino acid sequences and its post-translation modifications (PTM's) of four wasp-mastoparans (Ps 1524, Ps 1540, Ps 1556 and Ps 1630), three chemotactic peptides (Ps1417, Ps1434 and Ps1474) and one more (Ps1549) lysine rich peptide from the venom of P. stigma. There were 27 mass traces obtained from the crude natural venom, in which the complete amino acid sequences of 8 peptides were solved. Further, single disulphide bonded peptides uncommon in wasp venoms were identified. The mastoparan peptides were rich in hydrophobic residues. In addition, the peptides Ps1549, Ps1630, Ps1434 and Ps1417 were found to have unusual PTM's of C-terminal amidation. This preliminary study comprehends the untapped compounds present in wasp venom that are equally valuable to widely studied venoms of snakes, spiders and cone snails.