The Cost of Evolving Toxin Resistance

More from Carl Zimmer on the evolutionary arms race between rough-skinned newts, which have evolved a powerful toxin, tetrodotoxin or TTX, to deter predators, and the predators — including garter snakes — that have evolved a resistance to that toxin.

[Biologist Butch] Brodie’s son, Edmund, grew up catching newts, and today he’s a biologist at the University of Virginia. Father and son and colleagues have discovered that snakes have independently evolved the same mutations to their receptors in some populations, while evolving other mutations with the same effect in other populations. They’ve also found that both newts and snakes pay a cost for their weaponry. The newts put in a lot of energy into making TTX that could be directed to growing and making baby newts. The evolved receptors in garter snakes don’t just protect them from TTX; they also leave the snakes slower than vulnerable snakes. They’ve studied newts and snakes up and down the west coast of North America and found a huge range of TTX potency and resistance. That’s what you’d expect from a coevolutionary process in which local populations are adapting to each other in different environments, with different costs and benefits to escalating the fight.

Previously: Three Evolutionary Routes to Newt Toxin Immunity; Garter Snakes Win Arms Race with Newts.