Extremely Divergent Haplotypes in Two Toxin Gene Complexes Encode Alternative Venom Types within Rattlesnake Species.

ABSTRACT: Natural selection is generally expected to favor one form of a given trait within a population. The presence of multiple functional variants of traits involved in activities such as feeding, reproduction, or the defense against predators is relatively uncommon within animal species. The genetic architecture and evolutionary mechanisms underlying the origin and maintenance of such polymorphisms are of special interest. Among rattlesnakes, several instances of the production of biochemically distinct neurotoxic or hemorrhagic venom types within the same species are known. Here, we investigated the genetic basis of this phenomenon in three species and found that neurotoxic and hemorrhagic individuals of the same species possess markedly different haplotypes at two toxin gene complexes. For ex

SUBMITTER: Dowell NL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6461038 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature