Fig. 1.—

From venom to drugs. Depiction of strategy for identifying venom peptides in conoidean snails using NGS. The venom duct is dissected from conoidean snails and mRNA is extracted. Extracted mRNA is sequenced and de novo assembled. Assembled sequences are then annotated for a variety of comparative analyses such as phylogenetic reconstruction, identification of putative toxins, and assignment of GO function. When combined, comparative analyses can identify lineages that produce bioactive compounds with potential biomedical application for drug development (the pill at the bottom illustrates therapeutic potential).