By Susan Milius
For the first time, scientists have found a poisonous frog that takes up a toxin from its prey and then tweaks the chemical to make it a more deadly weapon.
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At least three species of the 4-to-5-centimeter-long Dendrobates frogs of the New World tropics modify an alkaloid to create one that’s about five times as poisonous, according to a team led by John W. Daly of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) in Bethesda, Md. The souped-up poison, one of a class called pumiliotoxins, ends up as a protective agent in the frogs’ skin, the researchers report in an upcoming Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.