Study
The toxicogenomic multiverse: convergent recruitment of proteins into animal venoms
Fry, Bryan G.; Roelants, Kim; Champagne, Donald E.; Scheib, Holger; Tyndall, Joel D. A.; King, Glenn F.; Nevalainen, Timo J.; Norman, Janette A.; Lewis, Richard J.; Norton, Raymond S.
Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, 2009
Traced the ancestry of venom protein families across many independently venomous animal lineages, identifying which ordinary physiological proteins each was recruited from.
- Studied in
- Animalia
- Sample size
- comparative analysis across venomous lineages
The same small set of protein families has been recruited into venom independently in many unrelated lineages, typically from digestive enzymes, immune proteins and regulatory peptides that were already secreted.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Venom evolution is strongly convergent and constrained: a limited number of protein types are repeatedly co-opted because they are already secreted and already act on tissue.
How NatureHQ reads it
Another instance of the recruitment pattern this corpus keeps finding — venom is not built from nothing, it is made from proteins the animal already secreted. It sits directly alongside the antifreeze protein of Antarctic fish, which used to be a digestive enzyme.
- Ancestry inferred from sequence similarity, which is strong for well-sampled families and weaker for others.
- Recruitment history is better resolved in snakes than in most invertebrate lineages.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Venom
There is no such thing as "the venom of" a species. Venoms are mixtures of many proteins, and their composition differs between populations, between adults and young, and with what the animal is eating.
Venom
Venom was not built from nothing. The same handful of protein families — digestive enzymes, immune proteins, signalling peptides — have been recruited into venom independently in many unrelated lineages.
Published by: Annual ReviewsPublished in an Annual Reviews journal.
doi.org/10.1146/annurev.genom.9.081307.164356
Checked against Crossref on 2026-09-28, and they agree on the title, the authors and the year.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-09-03.