Causes and consequences of snake venom variation

NR Casewell, TNW Jackson, AH Laustsen… - Trends in …, 2020 - cell.com
Snake venoms are mixtures of toxins that vary extensively between and within snake
species. This variability has serious consequences for the management of the world's 1.8 …

The rise of genomics in snake venom research: recent advances and future perspectives

W Rao, K Kalogeropoulos, ME Allentoft… - …, 2022 - academic.oup.com
Snake venoms represent a danger to human health, but also a gold mine of bioactive
proteins that can be harnessed for drug discovery purposes. The evolution of snakes and …

Microchromosomes are building blocks of bird, reptile, and mammal chromosomes

PD Waters, HR Patel, A Ruiz-Herrera… - Proceedings of the …, 2021 - National Acad Sciences
Microchromosomes, once considered unimportant shreds of the chicken genome, are gene-
rich elements with a high GC content and few transposable elements. Their origin has been …

Functional genomic diversity is correlated with neutral genomic diversity in populations of an endangered rattlesnake

S Mathur, AJ Mason, GS Bradburd… - Proceedings of the …, 2023 - National Acad Sciences
Theory predicts that genetic erosion in small, isolated populations of endangered species
can be assessed using estimates of neutral genetic variation, yet this widely used approach …

The Indian cobra reference genome and transcriptome enables comprehensive identification of venom toxins

K Suryamohan, SP Krishnankutty, J Guillory, M Jevit… - Nature Genetics, 2020 - nature.com
Snakebite envenoming is a serious and neglected tropical disease that kills~ 100,000
people annually. High-quality, genome-enabled comprehensive characterization of toxin …

Patterns of recombination in snakes reveal a tug-of-war between PRDM9 and promoter-like features

C Hoge, M de Manuel, M Mahgoub, N Okami, Z Fuller… - Science, 2024 - science.org
In some mammals, notably humans, recombination occurs almost exclusively where the
protein PRDM9 binds, whereas in vertebrates lacking an intact PRDM9, such as birds and …

Phylogenetically diverse diets favor more complex venoms in North American pitvipers

ML Holding, JL Strickland… - Proceedings of the …, 2021 - National Acad Sciences
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 …

Sex chromosome evolution among amniotes: is the origin of sex chromosomes non-random?

L Kratochvíl, T Gamble… - … Transactions of the …, 2021 - royalsocietypublishing.org
Sex chromosomes are a great example of a convergent evolution at the genomic level,
having evolved dozens of times just within amniotes. An intriguing question is whether this …

Comprehensive isoform-level analysis reveals the contribution of alternative isoforms to venom evolution and repertoire diversity

X Ye, C He, Y Yang, YH Sun, S **ong… - Genome …, 2023 - genome.cshlp.org
Animal venom systems have emerged as valuable models for investigating how novel
polygenic phenotypes may arise from gene evolution by varying molecular mechanisms …

The Tiger Rattlesnake genome reveals a complex genotype underlying a simple venom phenotype

MJ Margres, RM Rautsaw… - Proceedings of the …, 2021 - National Acad Sciences
Variation in gene regulation is ubiquitous, yet identifying the mechanisms producing such
variation, especially for complex traits, is challenging. Snake venoms provide a model …