Snake venom research has historically focused on front-fanged species (Viperidae and Elapidae), limiting our knowledge of venom evolution in rear-fanged snakes across their ecologically-diverse phylogeny. Three finger toxins (3FTxs) are a known neurotoxic component in the venoms of some rear-fanged snakes (Colubrinae, Colubridae), but it is unclear how prevalent 3FTxs are both in expression within venom glands and more broadly among colubrine species. Here, we used a transcriptomic approach to characterize the venom expression profiles of four species of colubrine snakes from Neotropics that were dominated by 3FTx expression (in the genera Chironius, Oxybelis, Rhinobothryum, and Spilotes) and reconstructed the gene trees of 3FTxs. Overall, our results highlight the importance of exploring the venoms of understudied species in reconstructing the full evolutionary history of toxins across the tree of life.
Srodawa, K., Cerda, P.A., Davis Rabosky, A.R., Crowe-Riddell, J.M. Evolution of Three Finger Toxin Genes in Neotropical Colubrine Snakes (Colubridae). Toxins 2023, 15(9), 523; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins15090523
This dataset includes dorsal and ventral photographs of Neotropical snakes collected in the Peruvian Amazon. These data were collected to survey and examine the diversity in color pattern evolution in Neotropical snakes.
We generated these data from desert night lizards, Xantusia vigilis, from populations in central California. We performed phylogeographic analyses based on these data.
All animal-related procedures were approved by the University of Michigan Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (Protocols #PRO00006234 and #PRO00008306) and the Peruvian government SERFOR (Servicio Nacional Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre. and Data were collected during five field expeditions in the Amazonian lowlands of Peru from March 2016 to December 2018.
