ArticlePloS one2011
Adaptive evolution of the venom-targeted vWF protein in opossums that eat pitvipers.
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers.
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Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 88 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Genetic Architecture of Venom Resistance: A Novel Approach to Target Identification and Coevolutionary Discovery.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Venom Variation as a Window into the Ecology and Evolution of Snakes.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Review
- Make Acetylcholine Great Again! Australian Skinks Evolved Multiple Neurotoxin-Proof Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors in Defiance of Snake Venom.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Article
- High-Voltage Toxin'Roll: Electrostatic Charge Repulsion as a Dynamic Venom Resistance Trait in Pythonid Snakes.Toxins · 2024Article
- A Russian Doll of Resistance: Nested Gains and Losses of Venom Immunity in Varanid Lizards.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Proteomics and life-history variability of Endogenous Phospholipases A2 Inhibitors (PLIs) in Bothrops jararaca plasma.PloS one · 2024Article
- Varying Modes of Selection Among Toxin Families in the Venoms of the Giant Desert Hairy Scorpions (Hadrurus).Journal of molecular evolution · 2023Article
- Resistance Is Not Futile: Widespread Convergent Evolution of Resistance to Alpha-Neurotoxic Snake Venoms in Caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona).International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Widespread convergent evolution of alpha-neurotoxin resistance in African mammals.Biology letters · 2022Article
- Convergent evolution of toxin resistance in animals.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2022Review
- The roles of balancing selection and recombination in the evolution of rattlesnake venom.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Article
- Ancestrally Reconstructed von Willebrand Factor Reveals Evidence for Trench Warfare Coevolution between Opossums and Pit Vipers.Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
- Monkeying around with venom: an increased resistance to α-neurotoxins supports an evolutionary arms race between Afro-Asian primates and sympatric cobras.BMC biology · 2021Article
- Phylogenetically diverse diets favor more complex venoms in North American pitvipers.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- A Bayesian Mutation-Selection Framework for Detecting Site-Specific Adaptive Evolution in Protein-Coding Genes.Molecular biology and evolution · 2021Article
- Resistance of South American opossums to vWF-binding venom C-type lectins.Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology · 2020Article
- Article
- Intraspecific sequence and gene expression variation contribute little to venom diversity in sidewinder rattlesnakes ( Crotalus cerastes).Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The rapid evolution of venom toxin genes is often explained as the result of a biochemical arms race between venomous animals and their prey. However, it is not clear that an arms race analogy is appropriate in this context because there is no published evidence for rapid evolution in genes that might confer toxin resistance among routinely envenomed species. Here we report such evidence from an unusual predator-prey relationship between opossums (Marsupialia: Didelphidae) and pitvipers (Serpentes: Crotalinae). In particular, we found high ratios of replacement to silent substitutions in the gene encoding von Willebrand Factor (vWF), a venom-targeted hemostatic blood protein, in a clade of opossums known to eat pitvipers and to be resistant to their hemorrhagic venom. Observed amino-acid substitutions in venom-resistant opossums include changes in net charge and hydrophobicity that are hypothesized to weaken the bond between vWF and one of its toxic snake-venom ligands, the C-type lectin-like protein botrocetin. Our results provide the first example of rapid adaptive evolution in any venom-targeted molecule, and they support the notion that an evolutionary arms race might be driving the rapid evolution of snake venoms. However, in the arms race implied by our results, venomous snakes are prey, and their venom has a correspondingly defensive function in addition to its usual trophic role.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.