The Burmese python is one of the most evolutionarily-advanced creatures on Earth, the Discovery News reported.
A full study of the snakes' genome not only reveals how advanced they are but it also sheds light on how the southeast Asian natives have survived and thrived, and may "offer new inroads" to treating human diseases."
"Their morphology has changed, their physiology, their metabolism, and their genes, their genomes have changed to match. So that is a pretty neat finding," principal investigator David Pollock told the Discovery News.
The Burmese python, which can grow to 20 feet or larger, is able to eat creatures as large as the snake itself. The head and jaw of the slithering snake can open wide enough to envelope a meal the size of a deer; it also has organs large enough to speedily digest the animal before it rots.
In the space of a day or two, the python's heart, small intestine, liver and kidneys increase in size, ranging from a third larger than before to double their pre-feast size. The organs shrink back to normal when the meal is digested.
Researchers found that a complex interplay between gene expression, protein adaptation and changes in the genome structure allows these snakes to do what others with the same genes cannot.
"Snakes have basically undergone incredible changes at all levels of their biology, from the physiological to the molecular," Pollock said.
Pollock, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, added that these changes could have taken place in "functionally important" ways over the past five to 30 million years. Allowing for the python's to adapt like no other.
"You think of being a tube as being really simple, right? But, in fact that makes life a lot harder, and they have got all sorts of adaptations ... that are very unique to make up for that," Pollock said.
Pollock told the Discovery News the species went through a phase when they lived underground. During this phase, their skulls elongated, their lung capacity decreased in response to the lower amount of oxygen available and their eyesight diminished.
When they moved above ground, they developed the capacity to dramatically shift their metabolism, from low to high, in order to consume what might have been a rare meal.
Co-author Stephen Secor told the Discovery News that these findings could offer a new understanding of the mechanisms behind human conditions such as organ failure, ulcers, metabolic disorders and more.
"With its genome in hand, we can now explore the many untapped molecular mechanisms it uses to dramatically increase metabolic rate, to shut down acid production, to improve intestinal function, and to rapidly increase the size of its heart, intestine, pancreas, liver, and kidneys," Secor said.
