Winning Article: “Diet Breadth Mediates the Prey Specificity of Venom Potency in Snakes”
Authors: Keith Lyons, Michel M. Dugon and Kevin Healy

Photo: Keith attending the British Ecological Society’s 2019 conference at Waterfront Hall, Belfast, where he presented his research on snake venom evolution, which was later published in Toxins.

While studying at the University of Galway (formerly the National University of Ireland, Galway) as an Environmental Science student, Mr. Keith Lyons’s interest in venomous animals quickly became apparent to Dr. Michel Dugon during his second year Zoology lab demonstrations. Seeing his keen interest, Dr. Dugon offered Mr. Lyons a research scholarship for the duration of the summer of 2017, working as an intern with the Noble False Widow spider, Steatoda nobilis, and its venom. Mr. Keith Lyons enjoyed his time working with Dr. Dugon and his team so much that he continued the internship on a voluntary basis for three years, publishing a Steatoda records paper, working with venomous invertebrates and reptiles from Ireland and abroad, e.g., Morocco, and aiding Dr. Dugon in running Eco-Explorers, a STEAM voluntary outreach program that educates the public about native and exotic animals and their ecology. He also worked on his final year undergraduate project with Dr. Dugon, investigating the venoms of two native centipede species (Lithobius forficatus and Lithobius variegatus), the first detailed study of both species’ venom potencies.

As of November 2022, Mr. Keith Lyons is a University of Galway Macroecology Ph.D. student working with his primary supervisor Dr. Kevin Healy and co-supervisor Dr. Dugon. As part of his Ph.D. research, Mr. Lyons continues to work with venom by investigating factors that influence the potency and evolution of different species’ venoms through phylogenetic comparative methods, median lethal dose 50% (LD₅₀) and median effective dose 50% (ED₅₀) experiments. As of November 2022, he has published two studies in Toxins (ISSN: 2072-6651), one discussing how diet breadth drives the evolution of potency in snake venom and the other on how venom optimization and high potency makes Steatoda nobilis a successful invasive spider.

We want to congratulate Mr. Keith Lyons, Mr. Michel M. Dugon and Mr. Kevin Healy for winning the Toxins 2021 Best Paper Award.

Interview with one of the authors–Mr. Keith Lyons:

1. Could you please briefly introduce the main research content of the winning paper?
While venoms have been found to have prey-specific potencies, the role of diet breadth (also known as the number of different taxa found in a species natural diet) on venom potencies has yet to be tested at large macroecological scales. We performed a phylogenetic comparative analysis of 100 snake species and their venom LD₅₀s, collected from the scientific literature, to determine if the evolution of prey-specific venom potencies is a result of the breadth of a species’ diet.

2. Could you describe the difficulties and breakthrough innovations encountered in this research?
The main challenge of the study was compiling the biological data pertaining to snake diet and venom potency. It took a very long time to complete and countless literature searches often yielded little to no data. Despite the large size of the dataset we produced in the end, biological data relating to snakes are very limited. This is a trend we observed in spiders and other venomous groups, showing the importance of producing and compiling this kind of data.

3. How was your experience submitting to Toxins?
Submitting my research to Toxins was a smooth process. I appreciated this as it was my first time submitting research as the lead author. Everyone I corresponded with during the submission process was accommodating and helpful. The deadlines were reasonable throughout, and processing was quick.

4. How do you think Open Access impacts authors?
In the short term, no author is elated about having to pay publication fees, even with waivers (although waivers are greatly appreciated). However, once that obstacle is overcome, I feel it is worth it in the long term for authors, as greater accessibility means increased readership, which ultimately leads to more citations and interest in your research. I believe a significant part of why my snake venom research is performing so well because it was published in an Open Access journal. The benefits associated with increased accessibility are likely the reason behind Open Access publishing becoming more popular among the scientific community.

5. Any suggestions that you have for Toxins, or anything else that you want to talk about?
I would like to thank everyone involved with the journal Toxins for not only selecting my research as the “Issue Cover” for Volume 12 Issue 2 of their journal but also for the 2021 Best Paper (Research Article) Award. It means a lot to my Ph.D. supervisors and me, and we are very grateful for the interest shown in our research.