Symposium: Integrative and Comparative Biology of Venom

Venom has evolved multiple times in animals and shows a remarkable diversity in function, structure, and gene sequence across and within lineages. This diversity has both phylogenetic and functional components, reflecting the lineage of the organism producing the venom and the specific interactions between the venomous animal and its target. This symposium provides a broad view of the major questions in the comparative study in venom biology by engaging biologists working on diverse lineages of venomous organisms and on diverse aspects of venom biology.  The topics proposed by the invitees span the animal kingdom and range from protein structure to sequence evolution to ecology. This overview provides a summary of the current state of knowledge and provides clear points of overlap and interest for scientists studying  e.g., predation ecology, sequence evolution, convergence, and the translation of genotype to phenotype.

Sponsors: Division of Phylogenetics & Comparative Biology
Divisions of Comparative Physiology & Biochemistry; Ecology & Evolution

Organizers

• Marymegan Daly (daly.66@osu.edu)
• H. Lisle Gibbs (gibbs.128@osu.edu)

Speakers

S8.1 Wednesday, Jan. 6, 08:00 SMITH, W. Leo*; GIRARD, Matthew G.; STERN, Jennifer H.:

Phylogenetic and anatomical diversity of venomous cartilaginous and ray-finned fishes

S8.2 Wednesday, Jan. 6, 08:30 HOLFORD, Mandë:

Mollusks to Medicine: Discovering novel therapeutics from the venom arsenal of predatory marine snails of the Terebridae

S8.3 Wednesday, Jan. 6, 09:00 JANSA, S.A.*; DRABECK, D.H.; DEAN, A.M.; VOSS, R.S.:

Adaptive evolution of genes involved in venom resistance in mammals

S8.4 Wednesday, Jan. 6, 09:30 CALVETE, Juan J.:

Understanding venom variability: a challenge for the analytical chemist, an opportunity for the evolutionary biologist

S8.5 Wednesday, Jan. 6, 10:30 BINFORD, GJ*; ZOBEL-THROPP, PA; BINFORD, Greta:

How the brown recluse got its bite: evolutionary assembly of the unique venoms of sicariid spiders

S8.6 Wednesday, Jan. 6, 11:00 ROWE, A.H.*; ROWE, M.P.:

Scorpion neurotoxins and their ion channel targets: diversity through coevolution?

S8.7 Wednesday, Jan. 6, 11:30 RODRíGUEZ DE LA VEGA, Ricardo C*; MORGENSTERN, David; GIRAUD, T:

Evolutionary tinkering in animal venoms

S8.9 Wednesday, Jan. 6, 14:00 MACKESSY, Stephen P.:

Colubrid snake venoms as a source for understanding biological roles of venoms among advanced snakes

S8.10 Wednesday, Jan. 6, 14:30 LEWIS, C.:

Differential expression of genes implicated in venom, vision and sex in the aggregating box jellyfish Alatina alata

S8.11 Wednesday, Jan. 6, 15:00 GIBBS, H. Lisle*; HOLDING , Matthew L.; SIMLEY, Sarah A.:

Beak of the Snake: Conceptual Frameworks for Assessing Venom as an Adaptive Phenotype