- Chuck Smith
- May 16
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 22
Molecular mechanisms influencing toxin gene expression and protein abundance in venom variation of five lineages of the Crotalus molossus complex
Bledsoe, Richard Dale
Borja-Jiménez, Miguel
Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas
Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango
Av. Universidad s/n. Fracc. Filadelfia, C.P.35010
Gómez Palacio, Durango, México
Rodríguez-López, Bruno
Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas
Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango
Av. Universidad s/n. Fracc. Filadelfia, C.P.35010
Gómez Palacio, Durango, México
Instituto de Biotecnología
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Avenida Universidad 2001, Chamilpa, C.P. 62210
Cuernavaca, Morelos, México
Department of Biological Sciences
Clemson University
Clemson, South Carolina USA
Department of Integrative Biology
University of South Florida
Tampa, Florida, USA
Strickland, Jason
Department of Biology
University of South Alabama
Mobile, Alabama USA
The Black-tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus) complex has been shown to exhibit venom variation both among and within its lineages. However, the molecular mechanisms driving this variation remain poorly understood. In this study, we generated genomes, venom gland transcriptomes, and the venom proteomes from representative juvenile and adult individuals across five lineages of the Crotalus molossus complex. We aimed to assess how the repertoire of toxin genes and their expression levels contribute to differences in the composition and abundance of venom toxins. All five lineages exhibited differences in the number of toxin genes, with Crotalus m. molossus displaying the highest number and Crotalus m. oaxacus the lowest. We found that both highly and lowly expressed toxin transcripts were differentially expressed in individuals with varying snout-vent lengths (SVL) across the five lineages. However, the number of toxin transcripts differentially expressed differed among lineages. In C. basiliscus and C. m. oaxacus, all individuals except one per lineage showed a significant relationship between the abundance of toxin families at both the transcript and protein levels. In C. m. molossus and C. ornatus, a correlation between abundance of transcripts and proteins was detected in all cases. In C. m. nigrescens, four out of the ten individuals were shown to display a correlation. These findings suggest that both the diversity of toxin genes and their differential expression contribute to the interspecific and ontogenetic venom variation within the Crotalus molossus complex.