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Plicidentine and the repeated origins of snake venom fangs
Snake fangs are an iconic exemplar of a complex adaptation, but despite striking developmental and morphological similarities, they probably evolved independently in several lineages of venomous snakes. How snakes could, uniquely among vertebrates, repeatedly evolve their complex venom delivery appa...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Royal Society
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8354744/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34375553 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1391 |
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author | Palci, Alessandro LeBlanc, Aaron R. H. Panagiotopoulou, Olga Cleuren, Silke G. C. Mehari Abraha, Hyab Hutchinson, Mark N. Evans, Alistair R. Caldwell, Michael W. Lee, Michael S. Y. |
author_facet | Palci, Alessandro LeBlanc, Aaron R. H. Panagiotopoulou, Olga Cleuren, Silke G. C. Mehari Abraha, Hyab Hutchinson, Mark N. Evans, Alistair R. Caldwell, Michael W. Lee, Michael S. Y. |
author_sort | Palci, Alessandro |
collection | PubMed |
description | Snake fangs are an iconic exemplar of a complex adaptation, but despite striking developmental and morphological similarities, they probably evolved independently in several lineages of venomous snakes. How snakes could, uniquely among vertebrates, repeatedly evolve their complex venom delivery apparatus is an intriguing question. Here we shed light on the repeated evolution of snake venom fangs using histology, high-resolution computed tomography (microCT) and biomechanical modelling. Our examination of venomous and non-venomous species reveals that most snakes have dentine infoldings at the bases of their teeth, known as plicidentine, and that in venomous species, one of these infoldings was repurposed to form a longitudinal groove for venom delivery. Like plicidentine, venom grooves originate from infoldings of the developing dental epithelium prior to the formation of the tooth hard tissues. Derivation of the venom groove from a large plicidentine fold that develops early in tooth ontogeny reveals how snake venom fangs could originate repeatedly through the co-option of a pre-existing dental feature even without close association to a venom duct. We also show that, contrary to previous assumptions, dentine infoldings do not improve compression or bending resistance of snake teeth during biting; plicidentine may instead have a role in tooth attachment. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8354744 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | The Royal Society |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-83547442021-08-17 Plicidentine and the repeated origins of snake venom fangs Palci, Alessandro LeBlanc, Aaron R. H. Panagiotopoulou, Olga Cleuren, Silke G. C. Mehari Abraha, Hyab Hutchinson, Mark N. Evans, Alistair R. Caldwell, Michael W. Lee, Michael S. Y. Proc Biol Sci Evolution Snake fangs are an iconic exemplar of a complex adaptation, but despite striking developmental and morphological similarities, they probably evolved independently in several lineages of venomous snakes. How snakes could, uniquely among vertebrates, repeatedly evolve their complex venom delivery apparatus is an intriguing question. Here we shed light on the repeated evolution of snake venom fangs using histology, high-resolution computed tomography (microCT) and biomechanical modelling. Our examination of venomous and non-venomous species reveals that most snakes have dentine infoldings at the bases of their teeth, known as plicidentine, and that in venomous species, one of these infoldings was repurposed to form a longitudinal groove for venom delivery. Like plicidentine, venom grooves originate from infoldings of the developing dental epithelium prior to the formation of the tooth hard tissues. Derivation of the venom groove from a large plicidentine fold that develops early in tooth ontogeny reveals how snake venom fangs could originate repeatedly through the co-option of a pre-existing dental feature even without close association to a venom duct. We also show that, contrary to previous assumptions, dentine infoldings do not improve compression or bending resistance of snake teeth during biting; plicidentine may instead have a role in tooth attachment. The Royal Society 2021-08-11 2021-08-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8354744/ /pubmed/34375553 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1391 Text en © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Evolution Palci, Alessandro LeBlanc, Aaron R. H. Panagiotopoulou, Olga Cleuren, Silke G. C. Mehari Abraha, Hyab Hutchinson, Mark N. Evans, Alistair R. Caldwell, Michael W. Lee, Michael S. Y. Plicidentine and the repeated origins of snake venom fangs |
title | Plicidentine and the repeated origins of snake venom fangs |
title_full | Plicidentine and the repeated origins of snake venom fangs |
title_fullStr | Plicidentine and the repeated origins of snake venom fangs |
title_full_unstemmed | Plicidentine and the repeated origins of snake venom fangs |
title_short | Plicidentine and the repeated origins of snake venom fangs |
title_sort | plicidentine and the repeated origins of snake venom fangs |
topic | Evolution |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8354744/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34375553 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1391 |
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