Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Restriction and recruitment – gene duplication and the origin and evolution of snake venom toxins

Adam D Hargreaves, Martin T Swain, Matthew J Hegarty, Darren W Logan, John F Mulley
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/006023
Adam D Hargreaves
1School of Biological Sciences, Bangor University, Brambell Building, Deiniol Road, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, United Kingdom
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Martin T Swain
2Institute of Biological, Environmental & Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DA, United Kingdom
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Matthew J Hegarty
2Institute of Biological, Environmental & Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DA, United Kingdom
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Darren W Logan
3Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1HH, United Kingdom
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
John F Mulley
1School of Biological Sciences, Bangor University, Brambell Building, Deiniol Road, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, United Kingdom
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: j.mulley@bangor.ac.uk
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

The genetic and genomic mechanisms underlying evolutionary innovations are of fundamental importance to our understanding of animal evolution. Snake venom represents one such innovation and has been hypothesised to have originated and diversified via a process that involves duplication of genes encoding body proteins and subsequent recruitment of the copy to the venom gland where natural selection can act to develop or increase toxicity. However, gene duplication is known to be a rare event in vertebrate genomes and the recruitment of duplicated genes to a novel expression domain (neofunctionalisation) is an even rarer process that requires the evolution of novel combinations of transcription factor binding sites in upstream regulatory regions. This hypothesis concerning the evolution of snake venom is therefore very unlikely. Nonetheless, it is often assumed to be established fact and this has hampered research into the true origins of snake venom toxins. We have generated transcriptomic data for a diversity of body tissues and salivary and venom glands from venomous and non-venomous reptiles, which has allowed us to critically evaluate this hypothesis. Our comparative transcriptomic analysis of venom and salivary glands and body tissues in five species of reptile reveals that snake venom does not evolve via the hypothesised process of duplication and recruitment of body proteins. Indeed, our results show that many proposed venom toxins are in fact expressed in a wide variety of body tissues, including the salivary gland of non-venomous reptiles and have therefore been restricted to the venom gland following duplication, not recruited. Thus snake venom evolves via the duplication and subfunctionalisation of genes encoding existing salivary proteins. These results highlight the danger of the “just-so story” in evolutionary biology, where an elegant and intuitive idea is repeated so often that it assumes the mantle of established fact, to the detriment of the field as a whole.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted June 06, 2014.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Restriction and recruitment – gene duplication and the origin and evolution of snake venom toxins
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Restriction and recruitment – gene duplication and the origin and evolution of snake venom toxins
Adam D Hargreaves, Martin T Swain, Matthew J Hegarty, Darren W Logan, John F Mulley
bioRxiv 006023; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/006023
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Restriction and recruitment – gene duplication and the origin and evolution of snake venom toxins
Adam D Hargreaves, Martin T Swain, Matthew J Hegarty, Darren W Logan, John F Mulley
bioRxiv 006023; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/006023

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Evolutionary Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4113)
  • Biochemistry (8815)
  • Bioengineering (6518)
  • Bioinformatics (23459)
  • Biophysics (11789)
  • Cancer Biology (9207)
  • Cell Biology (13322)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7436)
  • Ecology (11409)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15149)
  • Genetics (10436)
  • Genomics (14043)
  • Immunology (9171)
  • Microbiology (22153)
  • Molecular Biology (8812)
  • Neuroscience (47566)
  • Paleontology (350)
  • Pathology (1428)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2491)
  • Physiology (3730)
  • Plant Biology (8079)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1437)
  • Synthetic Biology (2220)
  • Systems Biology (6037)
  • Zoology (1253)