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We study venomous animals and their venoms as model systems to address broad and interesting questions in evolutionary biology and genetics. Venom, amongst nature's most complex biochemical cocktails, has underpinned the evolutionary success of several animal lineages. Venom has independently evolved on at least 30 times in animals and is employed to disrupt the physiological and biochemical processes of predators or prey to facilitate the defence or feeding of the venomous animal. Many venom proteins in unrelated (or distantly related) animals have remarkably acquired the ability to target identical molecular receptors. Thus, venom is an excellent system to understand the mechanisms underlying the origin of novel protein functions, the evolution of rapidly evolving proteins with adaptive functions, interspecific and intraspecific competitions, predator-prey co-evolutionary arms races, and the dynamic nature of natural selection.

 

In the past, our research has unravelled several fascinating aspects of animal venoms, including...

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• the ‘two-speed’ mode of venom evolution in animals (Sunagar and Moran, 2015)

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• the mechanisms underpinning the origin and diversification of venoms across large evolutionary time (Sunagar, 2013)

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• the highly predictable and parallel molecular evolution of resistance to poisons across the animal kingdom (Ujvari et al 2015)

 

• differential selection pressures on toxin domains underpinning neofunctionalization (Brust et al. 2013)

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• the biology, evolutionary origin and the genetic basis of development of cnidocytes - the first venom-injecting cells in animals (Sunagar et al. 2018)

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• spatiotemporal variability in venoms (eLife 2018)

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• geographical variability in venoms and its impact on antivenom efficiency (Sunagar et al. 2014; Laxme et al. 2019);

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• the origin and evolution of venom and venom delivery systems in basal reptiles (Fry 2013).