A common venomous ancestor? Prevalent bee venom genes evolved before the aculeate stinger while few major toxins are bee-specific
I. Koludarov, M. Velasque, T. Timm, C. Greve, A. B. Hamadou, D. K. Gupta, G. Lochnit, M. Heinzinger, A. Vilcinskas, R. Gloag, B. A. Harpur, L. Podsiadlowski, B. Rost, T. Jackson, S. Dutertre, , B. M. von Reumont
The paper investigates the origin of venom genes in hymenopteran insects, finding that most venom proteins predate the evolution of the aculeate stinger and are shared across the clade, with only a few being unique to bees.
bioRxiv · Jan 21, 2022Evolutionary Biology