Spiders are diverse, predatory arthropods that have inhabited Earth for around 400 million years. They are well known for their complex venom systems that are used to overpower their prey. Spider venoms contain many proteins and peptides with highly specific and potent activities suitable for biomedical or agrochemical applications, but the key role of venoms as an evolutionary innovation is often overlooked, even though this has enabled spiders to emerge as one of the most successful animal lineages. In this review, we discuss these neglected biological aspects of spider venoms. We focus on the morphology of spider venom systems, their major components, biochemical and chemical plasticity, as well as ecological and evolutionary trends. We argue that the effectiveness of spider venoms is due to their unprecedented complexity, with diverse components working synergistically to increase the overall potency. The analysis of spider venoms is difficult to standardize because they are dynamic systems, fine-tuned and modified by factors such as sex, life-history stage and biological role. Finally, we summarize the mechanisms that drive spider venom evolution and highlight the need for genome-based studies to reconstruct the evolutionary history and physiological networks of spider venom compounds with more certainty.

中文翻译：

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蜘蛛毒液的生物学和进化

蜘蛛是一种多样化的捕食性节肢动物，已经在地球上居住了大约 4 亿年。它们以其用于压制猎物的复杂毒液系统而闻名。蜘蛛毒液含有许多蛋白质和肽，具有高度特异性和强效活性，适用于生物医学或农业化学应用，但毒液作为进化创新的关键作用往往被忽视，尽管这使蜘蛛成为最成功的动物谱系之一. 在这篇综述中，我们讨论了蜘蛛毒液这些被忽视的生物学方面。我们专注于蜘蛛毒液系统的形态、主要成分、生化和化学可塑性，以及生态和进化趋势。我们认为蜘蛛毒液的有效性是由于它们前所未有的复杂性，多种成分协同工作以提高整体效力。蜘蛛毒液的分析很难标准化，因为它们是动态系统，会根据性别、生活史阶段和生物学作用等因素进行微调和修改。最后，我们总结了驱动蜘蛛毒液进化的机制，并强调需要基于基因组的研究来更确定地重建蜘蛛毒液化合物的进化历史和生理网络。