Snake venom research has broad implications for bite treatment

Studying how rattlesnakes regulate their venom gives us important insight into how their genes are controlled. It also highlights the challenges of treating snakebites, according to a new study published in the journal Genome biology and evolution.

“The research has broad ramifications for improving the global treatment of snakebites, with potential impact on millions of people around the world,” said Todd Castoe, lead author of the study and professor of biology at the University. from Texas to Arlington.

“How new traits arise, how genomic mechanisms control gene activation and deactivation, and how genomic changes alter gene regulation are fundamental questions for understanding the mechanisms that control gene expression.”

For the study, Castoe and his research team, which included scientists from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, the University of Colorado at Denver and the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley, studied the prairie rattlesnakes of Weld County, Colorado.

Prairie rattlesnakes generally live in the central United States, from Canada south to Texas and from Idaho east to Iowa. They measure approximately 35 to 45 inches in length and have a characteristic rattle that is used to warn potential attackers. Rattlesnakes are venomous and their bites can be fatal.

The team analyzed the animal’s venom glands to study gene expression in individual cells, with the aim of understanding how these genes are turned on and off by complex genomic mechanisms that regulate gene expression.

“Our results provide new evidence on how new gene regulatory mechanisms are emerging to control the timing and extent of gene expression, and how existing regulatory mechanisms could be co-opted for new purposes ” Castoe said.

To expand their research beyond snakes, he and his colleagues will apply new statistical approaches to generate, test and refine hypotheses about how genetic regulatory networks work – innovations that would be broadly applicable to any organism, including humans . The knowledge gained will advance the fundamental understanding of how natural selection acts to evolve, maintain and refine complex traits.