Is there more than one way to skin a newt? Convergent toxin resistance in snakes is not due to a common genetic mechanism.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/hdy.2015.73.

Is there more than one way to skin a newt? Convergent toxin resistance in snakes is not due to a common genetic mechanism.

Convergent evolution of tetrodotoxin (TTX) resistance, at both the phenotypic and genetic levels, characterizes coevolutionary arms races between amphibians and their snake predators around the world, and reveals remarkable predictability in the process of adaptation. Here we examine the repeatability of the evolution of TTX resistance in an undescribed predator-prey relationship between TTX-bearing Eastern Newts (Notophthalmus viridescens) and Eastern Hog-nosed Snakes (Heterodon platirhinos). We found that that local newts contain levels of TTX dangerous enough to dissuade most predators, and that Eastern Hog-nosed Snakes within newt range are highly resistant to TTX. In fact, these populations of Eastern Hog-nosed Snakes are so resistant to TTX that the potential for current reciprocal selection might be limited. Unlike all other cases of TTX resistance in vertebrates, H. platirhinos lacks the adaptive amino acid substitutions in the skeletal muscle sodium channel that reduce TTX binding, suggesting that physiological resistance in Eastern Hog-nosed Snakes is conferred by an alternate genetic mechanism. Thus, phenotypic convergence in this case is not due to parallel molecular evolution, indicating that there may be more than one way for this adaptation to arise, even among closely related species.

Convergent Evolution of Tetrodotoxin-Resistant Sodium Channels in Predators and Prey.

Convergent evolution of similar adaptive traits may arise from either common or disparate molecular and physiological mechanisms. The forces that determine the degree of underlying mechanistic similarities across convergent phenotypes are highly debated and poorly understood. Some garter snakes are able to consume newts that possess the channel blocking compound tetrodotoxin (TTX). Despite belonging to unrelated lineages, both the predators and prey have independently evolved remarkably similar physiological mechanisms of resistance to TTX that involve chemical and structural changes in voltage-gated sodium channels (NaV). The evolution of TTX resistance in this predator-prey pair constitutes a natural experiment that allows us to explore the causes of molecular convergence. Here, we review broad patterns of convergence at the level of amino acid changes in NaV channels of animals that evolved TTX resistance and make comparisons to known TTX-resistant channels that did not evolve under the selective pressures imposed by TTX. We conclude that convergence likely stems from the interplay of the target specificity of TTX and functional constraints of NaV that are shared among taxa. These and other factors can limit channel evolution to favor a few functionally permissible paths of adaptation, which can explain the observed predictability of changes to channel structure. By studying the functional causes of convergence in NaV channels, we can further our understanding of the role of these important channel proteins at the center of the evolution of the nervous system.