The Fall 2023 Biology Seminar Series continues with a talk from Dr. Greta Binford, "How the brown recluse got its bite: origin story of a nasty venom toxin." The seminar is on Tuesday, October 31st, at 12:00pm.
Brown recluse spiders are famous for bites that cause necrotic lesions. Our research advances knowledge about the evolutionary history of brown recluse and their relatives (biogeography) and uses that as a framework to understand where the venom toxins that cause lesions came from and how they have evolved new functions that make them toxic. I will answer the questions of how the brown recluse got to North America, when the venom toxin that causes necrosis originated in this lineage, and what we're learning about how that venom toxin affects insect prey.