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Keith Lyons
Ryan Institute, School of Natural Sciences, National University of Ireland Galway, H91 R8EC Galway, Ireland

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Journal article
Published: 23 January 2020 in Toxins
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Venoms are best known for their ability to incapacitate prey. In predatory groups, venom potency is predicted to reflect ecological and evolutionary drivers relating to diet. While venoms have been found to have prey-specific potencies, the role of diet breadth on venom potencies has yet to be tested at large macroecological scales. Here, using a comparative analysis of 100 snake species, we show that the evolution of prey-specific venom potencies is contingent on the breadth of a species’ diet. We find that while snake venom is more potent when tested on species closely related to natural prey items, we only find this prey-specific pattern in species with taxonomically narrow diets. While we find that the taxonomic diversity of a snakes’ diet mediates the prey specificity of its venom, the species richness of its diet was not found to affect these prey-specific potency patterns. This indicates that the physiological diversity of a species’ diet is an important driver of the evolution of generalist venom potencies. These findings suggest that the venoms of species with taxonomically diverse diets may be better suited to incapacitating novel prey species and hence play an important role for species within changing environments.

ACS Style

Keith Lyons; Michel M. Dugon; Kevin Healy. Diet Breadth Mediates the Prey Specificity of Venom Potency in Snakes. Toxins 2020, 12, 74 .

AMA Style

Keith Lyons, Michel M. Dugon, Kevin Healy. Diet Breadth Mediates the Prey Specificity of Venom Potency in Snakes. Toxins. 2020; 12 (2):74.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Keith Lyons; Michel M. Dugon; Kevin Healy. 2020. "Diet Breadth Mediates the Prey Specificity of Venom Potency in Snakes." Toxins 12, no. 2: 74.