ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2020
Australian funnel-web spiders evolved human-lethal δ-hexatoxins for defense against vertebrate predators.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Venom Revolution in Biomedicine: Unlocking Nature's Toxin Toolkit for Therapeutic Innovation.Toxicology reports · 2026Review
- Comparative venomics suggests an evolutionary adaption of spider venom from predation to defense.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Spider venom potency exhibits phylogenetic prey specificity but does not trade-off with body size or silk use in prey capture.Biology letters · 2025Article
- The world's most venomous spider is a species complex: systematics of the Sydney funnel-web spider (Atracidae: Atrax robustus).BMC ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- δ-Conotoxin Structure Prediction and Analysis through Large-Scale Comparative and Deep Learning Modeling Approaches.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- Spider-Venom Peptides: Structure, Bioactivity, Strategy, and Research Applications.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Advances in genome sequencing reveal changes in gene content that contribute to arthropod macroevolution.Development genes and evolution · 2023Review
- Exploring behavioral traits over different contexts in four species of Australian funnel-web spiders.Current zoology · 2023Article
- Behavioural Indicators of Pain and Suffering in Arthropods and Might Pain Bite Back?Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Review
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- The Deadly Toxin Arsenal of the Tree-Dwelling Australian Funnel-Web Spiders.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Equipped for Sexual Stings? Male-Specific Venom Peptides inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Profiling hymenopteran venom toxins: Protein families, structural landscape, biological activities, and pharmacological benefits.Toxicon: X · 2022Article
- A Literature Review of Unintentional Intoxications of Nonhuman Primates.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Review
- Behaviour of the Sydney funnel-web spiderToxicon: X · 2022Article
- Multitarget nociceptor sensitization by a promiscuous peptide from the venom of the King Baboon spider.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Toxinology in the proteomics era: a review on arachnid venom proteomics.The journal of venomous animals and toxins including tropical diseases · 2022Article
- Stings on wings: Proteotranscriptomic and biochemical profiling of the lesser banded hornet (Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2022Article
- A Spider Toxin Exemplifies the Promises and Pitfalls of Cell-Free Protein Production for Venom Biodiscovery.Toxins · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 7 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Australian funnel-web spiders are infamous for causing human fatalities, which are induced by venom peptides known as δ-hexatoxins (δ-HXTXs). Humans and other primates did not feature in the prey or predator spectrum during evolution of these spiders, and consequently the primate lethality of δ-HXTXs remains enigmatic. Funnel-web envenomations are mostly inflicted by male spiders that wander from their burrow in search of females during the mating season, which suggests a role for δ-HXTXs in self-defense since male spiders rarely feed during this period. Although 35 species of Australian funnel-web spiders have been described, only nine δ-HXTXs from four species have been characterized, resulting in a lack of understanding of the ecological roles and molecular evolution of δ-HXTXs. Here, by profiling venom-gland transcriptomes of 10 funnel-web species, we report 22 δ-HXTXs. Phylogenetic and evolutionary assessments reveal a remarkable sequence conservation of δ-HXTXs despite their deep evolutionary origin within funnel-web spiders, consistent with a defensive role. We demonstrate that δ-HXTX-Ar1a, the lethal toxin from the Sydney funnel-web spider
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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.