A developmental shift in venom toxin expression underpins a major prey switch in Australian Brown Snakes
Many animals change traits over the course of their lifetime, yet few clear examples exist of how thse trains enable ecological shifts within an animal's life. We demonstrate that a body size correlated dietary shift from small lizards to mammals in one of Australia's most venomous snake speices is accompanied by a major change in venom compostion. The timing of this prey shift coincides with the coordinated expression of multiple toxin genes, transforming the venom from a neurotoxic phenotype in lizard feeding juveniles to a potent procoagulant phenotype in mammal feeding adults.