{"id":52837,"date":"2025-08-07T20:24:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T20:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/52837\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T20:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T20:24:10","slug":"this-weird-australian-lizard-is-immune-to-deadly-snake-venom-now-scientists-have-found-the-ingenious-mutation-responsible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/52837\/","title":{"rendered":"This weird Australian lizard is immune to deadly snake venom \u2013 now scientists have found the \u201cingenious\u201d mutation responsible"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists have discovered the gene that makes Australian skinks immune to deadly snake venom<\/a> \u2013 and it could offer exciting new possibilities for treating snakebite<\/a> in humans.<\/p>\n

A new study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences<\/a> found that Australian skinks are able to dodge death by mutating a key muscle receptor, which makes them resistant to neurotoxins<\/a>. This feat of adaptation shows that Australian skinks have evolved the same venom resistance mutation as the honey badger<\/a>, which possesses a remarkable resistance to snake<\/a> venom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This offers promising opportunities for creating new antivenoms and therapies in human medicine.<\/p>\n

“What we saw in skinks was evolution at its most ingenious,” says Professor Bryan Fry from the University of Queensland\u2019s School of the Environment.<\/p>\n

“Australian skinks have evolved tiny changes in a critical muscle receptor, called the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. This receptor is normally the target of neurotoxins which bind to it and block nerve-muscle communication causing rapid paralysis and death.<\/p>\n

But in a stunning example of a natural counterpunch, we found that on 25 occasions skinks independently developed mutations at that binding site to block venom from attaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top image: Australia\u2019s Major Skink (Bellatorias frerei) has evolved the same venom resistance mutation as the honey badger (Mellivora capensis), which is found across Africa, Southwest Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Credit: Scott Eipper<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists have discovered the gene that makes Australian skinks immune to deadly snake venom \u2013 and it could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-52837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}