Evolutionary Ecology of Fish Venom: Adaptations and Consequences of Evolving a Venom System.

Research on venomous animals has mainly focused on the molecular, biochemical, and pharmacological aspects of venom toxins. However, it is the relatively neglected broader study of evolutionary ecology that is crucial for understanding the biological relevance of venom systems. As fish have convergently evolved venom systems multiple times, it makes them ideal organisms to investigate the evolutionary ecology of venom on a broader scale. This review outlines what is known about how fish venom systems evolved as a result of natural enemy interactions and about the ecological consequences of evolving a venom system. This review will show how research on the evolutionary ecology of venom in fish can aid in understanding the evolutionary ecology of animal venoms more generally. Further, understanding these broad ecological questions can shed more light on the other areas of toxinology, with applications across multiple disciplinary fields.

Citation

Harris, R.J.; Jenner, R.A. Evolutionary Ecology of Fish Venom: Adaptations and Consequences of Evolving a Venom System. Toxins 2019, 11, 60.

Type

Journal Article

Item Description

© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The attached file is the published version of the article.
NHM Repository

EISSN

2072-6651