Venoms in Snakes and Salivary Protein in Mammals Share a Common Origin
Published:04 Jan.2022 Source:Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University
Snakes, some lizards and even a few mammals can have a venomous bite. Although these lineages split more than 300 million years ago, their venoms have evolved from the same ancestral salivary protein, reported scientists today in BMC Biology.
Researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Japan and the Australian National University focused on a class of toxins found in most snake venoms and all other reptile and mammalian venoms called kallikrein serine proteases and traced their origins to a gene found in a common ancestor.