TY - JOUR

T1 - The rise of genomics in snake venom research

T2 - recent advances and future perspectives

AU - Rao, Wei Qiao

AU - Kalogeropoulos, Konstantinos

AU - Allentoft, Morten E.

AU - Gopalakrishnan, Shyam

AU - Zhao, Wei-ning

AU - Workman, Christopher T.

AU - Knudsen, Cecilie

AU - Jiménez-Mena, Belén

AU - Seneci, Lorenzo

AU - Mousavi-Derazmahalleh, Mahsa

AU - Jenkins, Timothy P.

AU - Rivera-de-Torre, Esperanza

AU - Liu, Si Qi

AU - Laustsen, Andreas H.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press GigaScience.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Snake venoms represent a danger to human health, but also a gold mine of bioactive proteins that can be harnessed for drug discovery purposes. The evolution of snakes and their venom has been studied for decades, particularly via traditional morphological and basic genetic methods alongside venom proteomics. However, while the field of genomics has matured rapidly over the past 2 decades, owing to the development of next-generation sequencing technologies, snake genomics remains in its infancy. Here, we provide an overview of the state of the art in snake genomics and discuss its potential implications for studying venom evolution and toxinology. On the basis of current knowledge, gene duplication and positive selection are key mechanisms in the neofunctionalization of snake venom proteins. This makes snake venoms important evolutionary drivers that explain the remarkable venom diversification and adaptive variation observed in these reptiles. Gene duplication and neofunctionalization have also generated a large number of repeat sequences in snake genomes that pose a significant challenge to DNA sequencing, resulting in the need for substantial computational resources and longer sequencing read length for high-quality genome assembly. Fortunately, owing to constantly improving sequencing technologies and computational tools, we are now able to explore the molecular mechanisms of snake venom evolution in unprecedented detail. Such novel insights have the potential to affect the design and development of antivenoms and possibly other drugs, as well as provide new fundamental knowledge on snake biology and evolution.

AB - Snake venoms represent a danger to human health, but also a gold mine of bioactive proteins that can be harnessed for drug discovery purposes. The evolution of snakes and their venom has been studied for decades, particularly via traditional morphological and basic genetic methods alongside venom proteomics. However, while the field of genomics has matured rapidly over the past 2 decades, owing to the development of next-generation sequencing technologies, snake genomics remains in its infancy. Here, we provide an overview of the state of the art in snake genomics and discuss its potential implications for studying venom evolution and toxinology. On the basis of current knowledge, gene duplication and positive selection are key mechanisms in the neofunctionalization of snake venom proteins. This makes snake venoms important evolutionary drivers that explain the remarkable venom diversification and adaptive variation observed in these reptiles. Gene duplication and neofunctionalization have also generated a large number of repeat sequences in snake genomes that pose a significant challenge to DNA sequencing, resulting in the need for substantial computational resources and longer sequencing read length for high-quality genome assembly. Fortunately, owing to constantly improving sequencing technologies and computational tools, we are now able to explore the molecular mechanisms of snake venom evolution in unprecedented detail. Such novel insights have the potential to affect the design and development of antivenoms and possibly other drugs, as well as provide new fundamental knowledge on snake biology and evolution.

KW - DNA sequencing

KW - snake genomics

KW - snake toxins

KW - snakes

KW - venom

KW - venom evolution

U2 - 10.1093/gigascience/giac024

DO - 10.1093/gigascience/giac024

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 35365832

AN - SCOPUS:85127427244

VL - 11

JO - GigaScience

JF - GigaScience

SN - 2047-217X

M1 - giac024

ER -