Phylogenetically diverse diets favor more complex venoms in North American pitvipers.

ABSTRACT: The role of natural selection in the evolution of trait complexity can be characterized by testing hypothesized links between complex forms and their functions across species. Predatory venoms are composed of multiple proteins that collectively function to incapacitate prey. Venom complexity fluctuates over evolutionary timescales, with apparent increases and decreases in complexity, and yet the causes of this variation are unclear. We tested alternative hypotheses linking venom complexity and ecological sources of selection from diet in the largest clade of front-fanged venomous snakes in North America: the rattlesnakes, copperheads, cantils, and cottonmouths. We generated independent transcriptomic and proteomic measures of venom complexity and collated several natural history studies to

SUBMITTER: Holding ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8092465 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature