A team of researchers from the Universities of Queensland and Sydney, Australia, has performed the first comprehensive characterization of a polypeptidic ant venom, that of the giant red bull ant (Myrmecia gulosa), revealing toxins that stimulate the human nervous system to cause pain. The results are published in the journal Science Advances.

“Venoms of bees and wasps had been a subject of research for some decades, but there had been little research on ant venom,” said study senior author Dr. Eivind Undheim, a scientist in the Centre for Advance Imaging at the University of Queensland.

“Ants are found on every inhabited continent on Earth, and many of us are familiar with the sting their venom can produce.”

“But, despite the ubiquity of ants, analyzing their venom has been neglected by researchers, likely due to ants’ relatively small size and venom yield, and also to the widespread misconception that they produce a simple acidic venom.”

Dr. Undheim and colleagues found that the venom of the giant red bull ant, an Australian species with a notoriously painful sting, is composed of a suite of peptide toxins, and that these are closely related to those found in the venoms of bees and wasps.

“This discovery suggests these toxins evolved from a common ancestor gene found across the Aculeata, or ‘stinging wasps’ part of the Hymenoptera order, which includes ants, bees, wasps and sawflies,” Dr. Undheim said.

“Revealing the chemistry behind animal stings could improve understanding of pain physiology and contribute to the development of new pain treatments,” added study first author Dr. Samuel Robinson, a researcher at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience and the Centre for Advance Imaging at the University of Queensland.

“Venoms are complex mixtures of molecules that animals use to subjugate prey and defend themselves against predators.”

“Defensive stings in particular are usually intensely painful, and contain toxins that directly target our pain-sensing neurons.”

“That means we can use animal venoms to study the human nervous system and learn more about how pain travels through the body and how to develop compounds that block it.”

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Samuel D. Robinson et al. 2018. A comprehensive portrait of the venom of the giant red bull ant, Myrmecia gulosa, reveals a hyperdiverse hymenopteran toxin gene family. Science Advances 4 (9): eaau4640; doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aau4640