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29 results for “venom evolution”
Data from: Echidna venom gland transcriptome provides insights into the evolution of monotreme venom
Monotremes (echidna and platypus) are egg-laying mammals. One of their most unique characteristic is that males have venom/crural glands that are seasonally active. Male platypuses produce venom during the breeding season, delivered via spurs, to aid in competition against other males. Echidnas are not able to erect their spurs, but a milky secretion is produced by the gland during the breeding season. The function and molecular composition of echidna venom is as yet unknown. Hence, we compared the deeply sequenced transcriptome of an in-season echidna crural gland to that of a platypus and searched for putative venom genes to provide clues into the function of echidna venom and the evolutionary history of monotreme venom. We found that the echidna venom gland transcriptome was markedly different from the platypus with no correlation between the top 50 most highly expressed genes. Four peptides found in the venom of the platypus were detected in the echidna transcriptome. However, these genes were not highly expressed in echidna, suggesting that they are the remnants of the evolutionary history of the ancestral venom gland. Gene ontology terms associated with the top 100 most highly expressed genes in echidna, showed functional terms associated with steroidal and fatty acid production, suggesting that echidna "venom" may play a role in scent communication during the breeding season. The loss of the ability to erect the spur and other unknown evolutionary forces acting in the echidna lineage resulted in the gradual decay of venom components and the evolution of a new role for the crural gland.
Ecological and biogeographic processes drive the proteome evolution of snake venom
<p class="Body"><span>The emergence of venom is an evolutionary innovation that favored the diversification and survival of snakes. The composition of snake venoms is known in detail from venom gland proteomic data. However, there is still a gap of knowledge about the forces that lead to the expression of different toxins in different proportions in the venom cocktail across space and time.</span></p> <p class="Body"><span><b>LOCATION</b></span></p> <p class="Body"><span>World.</span></p> <p class="Body"><span><b>TIME PERIOD</b></span></p> <p class="Body"><span>Modern.</span></p> <p class="Body"><span><b>MAJOR TAXA STUDIED</b></span></p> <p class="Body"><span>Elapidae and Viperidae.</span></p> <p class="Body"><span>We integrated proteomic data with phylogenetic comparative methods to understand how ecological and biogeographical processes drive the evolution of snake venom. </span><span>We observed that more productive environments favor a more complex venom, which presents a higher diversity and similarity on the toxin proportions in its composition. We found that the taxa that live in islands, where there is lower variability of resources, tended to present less complex venom dominated by few toxins. In this case, the island's isolation seems to be a relevant element for a faster fixation of specific venom compositions. </span>We show that ecological and biogeographic processes, which can act differentially over time and space, affect the gene expression of toxins in snake venoms.</p>
Data from: Echidna venom gland transcriptome provides insights into the evolution of monotreme venom
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Data from: Diversification rates and phenotypic evolution in venomous snakes (Elapidae)
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Ecological and biogeographic processes drive the proteome evolution of snake venom
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Data from: Targeted sequencing of venom genes from cone snail genomes improves understanding of conotoxin molecular evolution
To expand our capacity to discover venom sequences from the genomes of venomous organisms, we applied targeted sequencing techniques to selectively recover venom gene superfamilies and non-toxin loci from the genomes of 32 cone snail species (family, Conidae), a diverse group of marine gastropods that capture their prey using a cocktail of neurotoxic peptides (conotoxins). We were able to successfully recover conotoxin gene superfamilies across all species with high confidence (> 100X coverage) and used these data to provide new insights into conotoxin evolution. First, we found that conotoxin gene superfamilies are composed of 1-6 exons and are typically short in length (mean = ~85bp). Second, we expanded our understanding of the following genetic features of conotoxin evolution: (a) positive selection, where exons coding the mature toxin region were often three times more divergent than their adjacent noncoding regions, (b) expression regulation, with comparisons to transcriptome data showing that cone snails only express a fraction of the genes available in their genome (24%-63%), and (c) extensive gene turnover, where Conidae species varied from 120-859 conotoxin gene copies. Finally, using comparative phylogenetic methods, we found that while diet specificity did not predict patterns of conotoxin evolution, dietary breadth was positively correlated with total conotoxin gene diversity. Overall, the targeted sequencing technique demonstrated here has the potential to radically increase the pace at which venom gene families are sequenced and studied, reshaping our ability to understand the impact of genetic changes on ecologically relevant phenotypes and subsequent diversification.
Figure 5 in The evolution of venom-delivery systems in snakes
Figure 5. Head muscles of (A) Python regius (modified from Phisalix, 1922), showing an unspecialized pattern of external adductor muscles; (B) the viperid, Vipera aspis (modified from Phisalix, 1922); (C) the elapid, Elapsoidea sundevalli (modified from McDowell, 1968), and (D) the atractaspidid, Atractaspis dahomeyensis (modified from Underwood & Kochva, 1993). The adductor externus muscles are shown in colour: red, AES and derived fibres; yellow, AEM and derived fibres; blue, AEP and derived fibres. Snakes not drawn to the same scale.
Data from: Domain loss facilitates accelerated evolution and neofunctionalization of duplicate snake venom metalloproteinase toxin genes
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Data from: Targeted sequencing of venom genes from cone snail genomes improves understanding of conotoxin molecular evolution
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