Biological toxins are entrenched within ecosystems. Thus, animals are often exposed to
such toxins, and how they adapt can be a key determinant of their evolutionary trajectories …

Venoms are integrated phenotypes that evolved independently in, and are used for
predatory and defensive purposes by, a wide phylogenetic range of organisms. The same …

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 …

Convergence is the phenomenon whereby similar phenotypes evolve independently in
different lineages. One example is resistance to toxins in animals. Toxins have evolved …

Many aspects of health and disease are modeled using the abstraction of a" pathway"—a
set of protein or other subcellular activities with specified functional linkages between them …

The origin of snake venom involved duplication and recruitment of non-venom genes into
venom systems. Several studies have predicted that directional positive selection has …

Venomous animals have been admired and feared since prehistoric times, and their venoms
have been used to both benefit and impair human health. In 326 BCE, Alexander the Great …

Mambas (genus Dendroaspis) are among the most feared of the medically important elapid
snakes found in sub-Saharan Africa, but many facets of their biology, including the diversity …

Understanding how biotic interactions shape the genomes of the interacting species is a
long-sought goal of evolutionary biology that has been hampered by the scarcity of tractable …

Despite the fact that venom is an intrinsically ecological trait, the ecological perspective has
been widely neglected in toxinological research. This neglect has hindered our …