Lack of Signal for the Impact of Conotoxin Gene Diversity on Speciation Rates in Cone Snails.

ABSTRACT: Understanding why some groups of organisms are more diverse than others is a central goal in macroevolution. Evolvability, or the intrinsic capacity of lineages for evolutionary change, is thought to influence disparities in species diversity across taxa. Over macroevolutionary time scales, clades that exhibit high evolvability are expected to have higher speciation rates. Cone snails (family: Conidae, $>$900 spp.) provide a unique opportunity to test this prediction because their toxin genes can be used to characterize differences in evolvability between clades. Cone snails are carnivorous, use prey-specific venom (conotoxins) to capture prey, and the genes that encode venom are known and diversify through gene duplication. Theory predicts that higher gene diversity confers a greater pote

SUBMITTER: Phuong MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6934442 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature