Mystery Found Involving Spiders, Bacteria
UPI
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Portland, Oregon (US):
Scientists at Lewis & Clark College and the University of Arizona have discovered an evolutionary mystery:
Spider venom and bacteria share the same toxin.
The researchers found evidence of an ancient transfer of a toxin between ancestors of the two very dissimilar organisms. But the mystery is how the toxin passed between the two organisms. "We are piecing together a historical puzzle with evidence from living descendants of an ancient ancestor," said Greta Binford, assistant professor of biology at Lewis & Clark in Portland, Ore., and her co-researcher, Matthew Cordes, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at the University of Arizona.
They say the toxin is uniquely found in the venom of brown or violin spiders, including the brown recluse, and in some Corynebacteria.
Feb 01, 2006
UPI
___
Portland, Oregon (US):
Scientists at Lewis & Clark College and the University of Arizona have discovered an evolutionary mystery:
Spider venom and bacteria share the same toxin.
The researchers found evidence of an ancient transfer of a toxin between ancestors of the two very dissimilar organisms. But the mystery is how the toxin passed between the two organisms. "We are piecing together a historical puzzle with evidence from living descendants of an ancient ancestor," said Greta Binford, assistant professor of biology at Lewis & Clark in Portland, Ore., and her co-researcher, Matthew Cordes, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at the University of Arizona.
They say the toxin is uniquely found in the venom of brown or violin spiders, including the brown recluse, and in some Corynebacteria.
Feb 01, 2006
