Immunological relationships of venomous snakes

Abstract

1. 1. Sera of 14 species and subspecies of venomous snakes, representing five subfamilies and two families, were studied by immunoelectrophoresis using antisera against sera of Bungarus mulicinctus, Deinagkistrodon acutus, Naja naja atra, Trimeresurus mucrosquamatus, and Vipera russelli formosensis. 2. 2. Except for Naja antiserum, the other four antisera reacted strongly with sera collected from members of its own family, but they did not differentiate well from distantly related species. 3. 3. With the exception of Bungarus serum, all other sera developed with Naja antiserum showed fewer arcs, and the same was true, when Naja serum was developed with the three viperid antisera; but not the antiserum of Bungarus. These results indicate that certain serum proteins in Naja are distinct from those of other snakes. Is this finding caused by faster evolution of proteins in Naja or by the primitive nature of Naja? 4. 4. Deinagkistrodon does not show a closer relationship to Agkistrodon than to other crotalines, when using Deinagkistrondon antiserum to react with crotaline sera. The generic status of Deinagkistrodon is thus supported by our study. © 1993.