title: Ecological venomics: How genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics can shed new light on the ecology and evolution of venom.
abstract: Animal venom is a complex cocktail of bioactive chemicals that traditionally drew interest mostly from biochemists and pharmacologists. However, in recent years the evolutionary and ecological importance of venom is realized as this trait has direct and strong influence on interactions between species. Moreover, venom content can be modulated by environmental factors. Like many other fields of biology, venom research has been revolutionized in recent years by the introduction of systems biology approaches, i.e., genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics. The employment of these methods in venom research is known as 'venomics'. In this review we describe the history and recent advancements of venomics and discuss how they are employed in studying venom in general and in particular in the context of evolutionary ecology. We also discuss the pitfalls and challenges of venomics and what the future may hold for this emerging scientific field.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
authors.forename: Kartik
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sunagar
authors.affiliation: Proteomics Resource Center, Langone Medical Center, New York University, New York, USA. Electronic address: venomologist@gmail.com.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Morgenstern
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.
authors.forename: Adam M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Reitzel
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. Electronic address: yehu.moran@mail.huji.ac.il.
authors.forename: Yehu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Moran
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004463:Ecology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D040901:Proteomics; D014688:Venoms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014688:Venoms
keywords: Genomics; Proteomics; Toxin; Transcriptomics; Venom; Venomics