ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2020
Toxin expression in snake venom evolves rapidly with constant shifts in evolutionary rates.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- The convergent evolution of the pelvic suction cup: A unique key innovation in spiny-finned fishes.Science advances · 2026Article
- Molecular mechanisms underlying early functional divergence in snake venom inferred from the genomes of two pitviper lineages.BMC biology · 2025Article
- Evolution of Phospholipase A2 in Bees and Flies.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- The cellular substrate of evolutionary novelty.Current biology : CB · 2025Review
- Exploring the Diversity and Function of Serine Proteases in Toxicofera Reptile Venoms: A Comprehensive Overview.Toxins · 2024Review
- Robust Phylogenetic Regression.Systematic biology · 2024Article
- Article
- Comprehensive isoform-level analysis reveals the contribution of alternative isoforms to venom evolution and repertoire diversity.Genome research · 2023Article
- On the Decoupling of Evolutionary Changes in mRNA and Protein Levels.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
- One Size Fits All-Venomics of the Iberian Adder (Toxins · 2023Article
- Exploring Toxin Genes of Myanmar Russell's Viper,Toxins · 2023Article
- Micro and macroevolution of sea anemone venom phenotype.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Venom Gene Sequence Diversity and Expression Jointly Shape Diet Adaptation in Pitvipers.Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
- Dynamic genetic differentiation drives the widespread structural and functional convergent evolution of snake venom proteinaceous toxins.BMC biology · 2022Article
- Co-option of the same ancestral gene family gave rise to mammalian and reptilian toxins.BMC biology · 2021Article
- Article
- An ancient, conserved gene regulatory network led to the rise of oral venom systems.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Investigating Toxin Diversity and Abundance in Snake Venom Proteomes.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Key innovations provide ecological opportunity by enabling access to new resources, colonization of new environments, and are associated with adaptive radiation. The most well-known pattern associated with adaptive radiation is an early burst of phenotypic diversification. Venoms facilitate prey capture and are widely believed to be key innovations leading to adaptive radiation. However, few studies have estimated their evolutionary rate dynamics. Here, we test for patterns of adaptive evolution in venom gene expression data from 52 venomous snake species. By identifying shifts in tempo and mode of evolution along with models of phenotypic evolution, we show that snake venom exhibits the macroevolutionary dynamics expected of key innovations. Namely, all toxin families undergo shifts in their rates of evolution, likely in response to changes in adaptive optima. Furthermore, we show that rapid-pulsed evolution modelled as a Lévy process better fits snake venom evolution than conventional early burst or Ornstein-Uhlenbeck models. While our results support the idea of snake venom being a key innovation, the innovation of venom chemistry lacks clear mechanisms that would lead to reproductive isolation and thus adaptive radiation. Therefore, the extent to which venom directly influences the diversification process is still a matter of contention.
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