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Male and Female Adder Venoms Showed Highly Similar Composition and Bioactivity

European adder coiled on forest floor
Research · Molecular biology & biochemistry

A study of captive-bred adders (Vipera berus) originating from northern Bavaria, Germany found that venom from adult males and females was highly similar in both composition and biological activity. The researchers compared venom from six males and six females, pooling the samples by sex before carrying out proteomic and functional analyses.

Snake venoms can vary within a species according to factors such as geography, age and season. The study examined whether sex produces another important source of variation in the adder, a species in which males and females differ in average size and appearance.

Four toxin families dominated both venom pools

Protein profiling using electrophoresis, chromatography and mass spectrometry produced very similar venom profiles for males and females. Four toxin families — phospholipases A2, snake-venom serine proteases, C-type lectins and snake-venom metalloproteinases — together accounted for more than 95% of the relative toxin-family abundance in the analysed venoms.

The researchers also tested protease and phospholipase A2 activity, effects on mammalian cell viability and several parts of the blood-clotting system. Male and female venom showed closely similar activity across these assays. Both pools displayed strong thrombin-like and plasmin-like activity. In this context, thrombin-like activity promotes processes involved in fibrin formation and clotting, whereas plasmin-like activity acts in the opposing direction by breaking down fibrin. The measured differences between the sexes were minor.

Little evidence for a sex effect

The authors conclude that their results do not indicate a noteworthy degree of sex-based venom variation in the studied adders. Slight differences in some protein-band intensities were considered more consistent with individual variation already known within the species than with a clear male–female difference. Dry venom yield varied from less than 1 to more than 9 mg among individuals. Females were generally larger and usually yielded more venom, and venom yield tended to increase with body size. These differences did not translate into a clear male–female difference in the pooled venom composition or activity.

Sources and image credit

  1. Schulte, L., Engelhardt, M., Eichberg, J., Cabrera-Orefice, A., Wölfel, H., Damm, M., Avella, I., Kreuels, B., Hardes, K., Eble, J. A., Vilcinskas, A., & Lüddecke, T. (2026). Comparison of proteomes and biofunctional properties of male and female common adder (Vipera berus) venoms. Biochimie, 244, 40–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biochi.2026.01.018Primary peer-reviewed study, first published online 4 February 2026. Venom from six captive-bred adult males and six captive-bred adult females originating from northern Bavaria was pooled by sex and showed highly similar proteomic profiles and bioactivity; four toxin families accounted for more than 95% of relative toxin-family abundance.

Image: Benny Trapp / Wikimedia Commons — common adder (Vipera berus); representative species image, not one of the snakes sampled in the German venom study. · CC BY 3.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ · Source

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Molecular biology & biochemistry

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