Toxin sponges may protect poisonous frogs and birds from their own poisons, study suggests

[PhysOrg]

A team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Stanford University, and the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) has uncovered new clues as to how poisonous frogs and birds avoid intoxicating themselves. Their study, which will be published August 5 in the Journal of General Physiology (JGP), suggests that, rather than evolving resistant versions of the toxin's target protein, the animals produce "toxin sponges" that can mop up the poison and prevent it from exerting its deadly effects.

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