Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Feb;97(1):163-178.
doi: 10.1111/brv.12793. Epub 2021 Aug 28.

The biology and evolution of spider venoms

Tim Lüddecke  1   2 , Volker Herzig  3   4 , Björn M von Reumont  2   5 , Andreas Vilcinskas  1   2   5
Affiliations
Review

The biology and evolution of spider venoms

Tim Lüddecke et al. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2022 Feb.

Abstract

Spiders are diverse, predatory arthropods that have inhabited Earth for around 400 million years. They are well known for their complex venom systems that are used to overpower their prey. Spider venoms contain many proteins and peptides with highly specific and potent activities suitable for biomedical or agrochemical applications, but the key role of venoms as an evolutionary innovation is often overlooked, even though this has enabled spiders to emerge as one of the most successful animal lineages. In this review, we discuss these neglected biological aspects of spider venoms. We focus on the morphology of spider venom systems, their major components, biochemical and chemical plasticity, as well as ecological and evolutionary trends. We argue that the effectiveness of spider venoms is due to their unprecedented complexity, with diverse components working synergistically to increase the overall potency. The analysis of spider venoms is difficult to standardize because they are dynamic systems, fine-tuned and modified by factors such as sex, life-history stage and biological role. Finally, we summarize the mechanisms that drive spider venom evolution and highlight the need for genome-based studies to reconstruct the evolutionary history and physiological networks of spider venom compounds with more certainty.

Keywords: biochemistry; ecology; evolution; morphology; spider; toxins; venom.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Abreu, T. F., Sumitomo, B. N., Nishiyama, M. Y., Oliveira, U. C., Souza, G. H. M. F., Kitano, E. S., Zelanis, A., Serrano, S. M. T., Junqueira-de-Azevedo, I., Silva, P. I. & Tashima, A. K. (2017). Peptidomics of Acanthoscurria gomesiana spider venom reveals new toxins with potential antimicrobial activity. Journal of Proteomics 151, 232-242.
    1. Adams, M. E. (2004). Agatoxins: ion channel specific toxins from the american funnel web spider, Agelenopsis aperta. Toxicon 43, 509-525.
    1. Alape-Girón, A., Sanz, L., Escolano, J., Flores-Díaz, M., Madrigal, M., Sasa, M. & Calvete, J. J. (2008). Snake venomics of the lancehead pitviper Bothrops asper: geographic, individual, and ontogenetic variations. Journal of Proteome Research 7, 3556-3571.
    1. Babb, P. L., Lahens, N. F., Correa-Garhwal, S. M., Nicholson, D. N., Kim, E. J., Hogenesch, J. B., Kuntner, M., Higgins, L., Hayashi, C. Y., Agnarsson, I. & Voight, B. F. (2017). The Nephila clavipes genome highlights the diversity of spider silk genes and their complex expression. Nature Genetics 49, 895-903.
    1. Bende, N. S., Dziemborowicz, S., Mobli, M., Herzig, V., Gilchrist, J., Wagner, J., Nicholson, G. M., King, G. F. & Bosmans, F. (2014). A distinct sodium channel voltage-sensor locus determines insect selectivity of the spider toxin Dc1a. Nature Communications 5, 4350.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources