Schematic diagram of snake evolution based on data from. Thus, snakes are important model organisms for evolutionary studies and have yielded insights into limb development, sex chromosome evolution, and venom evolution. Moreover, severe jaw modifications and low metabolic rates enable snakes to swallow and digest large prey whole, further consolidating their position as formidable predators.
1), provides these animals with exceptional predatory capabilities despite the loss of limbs and the degradation of visual and auditory perception in many (but not all) species. For example, the evolution of infrared sensing pits in pit vipers (Viperidae: Crotalinae), boas (Boidae), and pythons (Pythonidae), and of a venom apparatus in several snake families (Fig. Snakes have many specialized adaptations compared to other reptile lineages. Together with amphisbaenians, snakes and all other lizards thus form the largest branch of terrestrial vertebrates, the squamate reptiles. Even before the advent of genetic approaches, conventional anatomical and morphology-based phylogenetic evidence unambiguously suggested that snakes are nested within lizards, with the Anguimorpha lineage (e.g., monitor lizards, glass lizards, beaded lizards) as their closest relatives. From an evolutionary perspective, these reptiles stand out for their characteristic lack of limbs, elongated body shape, and exclusively carnivorous diet. Snakes (Squamata: Serpentes) represent a monophyletic lineage, comprising ∼3,600 extant species found in all continents, except Antarctica. Such novel insights have the potential to affect the design and development of antivenoms and possibly other drugs, as well as provide new fundamental knowledge on snake biology and evolution. Fortunately, owing to constantly improving sequencing technologies and computational tools, we are now able to explore the molecular mechanisms of snake venom evolution in unprecedented detail. Gene duplication and neofunctionalization have also generated a large number of repeat sequences in snake genomes that pose a significant challenge to DNA sequencing, resulting in the need for substantial computational resources and longer sequencing read length for high-quality genome assembly.
CLASSIC SNAKE NEW STUDY HALL DRIVERS
This makes snake venoms important evolutionary drivers that explain the remarkable venom diversification and adaptive variation observed in these reptiles. On the basis of current knowledge, gene duplication and positive selection are key mechanisms in the neofunctionalization of snake venom proteins. Here, we provide an overview of the state of the art in snake genomics and discuss its potential implications for studying venom evolution and toxinology. However, while the field of genomics has matured rapidly over the past 2 decades, owing to the development of next-generation sequencing technologies, snake genomics remains in its infancy. The evolution of snakes and their venom has been studied for decades, particularly via traditional morphological and basic genetic methods alongside venom proteomics. Snake venoms represent a danger to human health, but also a gold mine of bioactive proteins that can be harnessed for drug discovery purposes.
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