Genes

Defensin genes in snakes are expressed in the pancreas and are used to fight infections, in humans, pigs and mice they are also used to fight infections. Gene is the process of generating new genetic material by copying the gene sequence. Regulatory mutations are presences of enhancer or silencers in a region of DNA that can control transcription. Coding sequence mutations are changes in the DNA sequence which leads to different proteins being synthesized. These three mechanisms helped evolve defensin genes into venomous crotamine. Gene duplication helped evolve crotamine by creating copied of defensin genes to attack different pathogens. A regulatory mutation which changed where a protein was produced was duplicated in snakes, the new protein location allowed snakes to release the defensing into the bite wounds of the prey. More mutations of the duplicated gene caused for the evolving of the defensin from attacking pathogens to attacking the prey’s muscles. Different venoms evolved from different genes from either the heart or brain. These genes went through regulatory mutations that were duplicated over and over. More mutations fine-tuned them into the venoms today.  Venom genes were seen to be in a common ancestor of all snakes.