429: Deadly newt no match for highly evolved garter snake | Science Blog

Deadly newt no match for highly evolved garter snake | Science Blog:

An evolutionary arms race between predatory garter snakes and their newt quarry is turning out to be something of an illusion. At the molecular level, another battle rages. And in this second, miniature realm, it's the newt who's the aggressor.

Biologists at Indiana University Bloomington, Utah State University and the University of Utah present evidence in this week's Nature that a toxin produced by the rough skinned newt, Taricha granulosa, has forced several evolutionary changes in the garter snake Thamnophis sirtalis or, more specifically, in the snake nerve cell protein that endures the toxin's attacks.

Evolutionary hypothesis tested. New information added to genes. Cool biology.