ArticleiScience2024
Venom exaptation and adaptation during the trophic switch to blood-feeding by kissing bugs.
Article in iScience, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Multifunctional lysozymes from the assassin bug Sycanus bifidus: Insecticidal proteins with anticoagulant and melanization inhibition properties.Pest management science · 2026Article
- Conkazal-M1 from the MKAVA family of conotoxins: A dual-function protease inhibitor and neuroactive peptide.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2026Article
- Morphological and Ultrastructural Characterization of the Venom Apparatus of the Predatory Stink Bug,Insects · 2026Article
- Conkazal-M1 from the MKAVA family of conotoxins - a dual-function protease inhibitor and neuroactive peptide.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- On the origin, evolution, and maintenance of RNA editing.Nucleic acids research · 2025Review
- Neuroimmune Pain and Its Manipulation by Pathogens.Evolutionary applications · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
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Abstract
Kissing bugs are known to produce anticoagulant venom that facilitates blood-feeding. However, it is unknown how this saliva evolved and if the venom produced by the entomophagous ancestors of kissing bugs would have helped or hindered the trophic shift. In this study, we show that venoms produced by extant predatory assassin bugs have strong anticoagulant properties mediated chiefly by proteolytic degradation of fibrinogen, and additionally contain anticoagulant disulfide-rich peptides. However, venom produced by predatory species also has pain-inducing and membrane-permeabilizing activities that would be maladaptive for blood-feeding, and which venom of the blood-feeding species lack. This study demonstrates that venom produced by the predatory ancestors of kissing bugs was exapted for the trophic switch to blood-feeding by virtue of its anticoagulant properties. Further adaptation to blood-feeding occurred by downregulation of venom toxins with proteolytic, cytolytic, and pain-inducing activities, and upregulation and neofunctionalization of toxins with anticoagulant activity independent of proteolysis.
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