Truncated life history underlies rapid local adaptation in island rattlesnake venom expression Abstract Rapid adaptive evolution may be more likely to occur not only through standing genetic variation but via existing axes of genetic variation that have previously been exposed to selection. Ontogenetic variation represents one such axis and often evolves under strong selection in snake venoms. Snake venoms are complex cocktails of proteinaceous toxins, and ontogenetic shifts in venom expression are frequent and reflect dietary shifts across life history. Here, we used morphological, proteomic, transcriptomic, epigenomic, and optical genome mapping data to investigate a well-studied island-mainland population pair of eastern diamondback rattlesnakes (Crotalus adamanteus) to determine whether rapid adaptive expression divergence across populations occurred through the co-option of the ontogenetic regulatory network, population-specific changes independent of ontogeny, or a combinat...
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