Back to the Future: Where Do We Stand on the Piscivorous Habits of Conus striatus Nearly 70 Years Later?

Nearly 70 years ago, the fish-hunting strategy of the marine gastropod snail Conus striatus Linnaeus, 1758, was unveiled for the first time. Now, Conus striatus is one of the most recognizable and most studied conids, and some toxins (conotoxins) have been characterized from its venom. In his pioneering work, Alan Kohn showed that upon injection of venom through a harpoon-like modified radular tooth, the fish prey of Conus striatus is rapidly immobilized, within a few hundred milliseconds to a couple of seconds. The cocktail of conotoxins induces strong tetanic contractions of all muscles, with visible fasciculation (twitching) of the fish's fins. In this review, we wish to honor the memory of Alan Kohn by summarizing the current knowledge of the venom composition and biological activity of conotoxins of Conus striatus. From the 103 entries of conotoxins from Conus striatus that occur in the Conoserver database, 74 are mature conotoxin sequences and only a dozen or so have been pharmacologically characterized. Surprisingly, the major toxin class responsible for the “taser-like” effect in fish originally observed, the kA-conotoxins, remains poorly understood. Only one three-dimensional structure is known, and the molecular target and mode of action are at best uncertain. This clearly highlights that, despite the vast amount of data accumulated over the years, even for such heavily investigated species as Conus striatus, many important questions remain.