Laboratorio de Biología Reproductiva de Vertebrados, Escuela de Biología, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Bucaramanga, Colombia.
Anat Rec (Hoboken). 2011 Feb;294(2):349-62. doi: 10.1002/ar.21306. Epub 2010 Dec 2.
Male and female plethodontid salamanders have specialized cloacal glands associated with the reproductive activity. The reproductive cycle in Bolitoglossa nicefori is characterized by males that are potentially reproductive throughout the year, and females that are reproductive only for a few months. To determine whether morphological and histochemical variation occur in cloacal structures related to reproductive activity, the cloacal region of male and female specimens of B. nicefori was studied in different stages of their annual reproductive cycle using light microscopy and compared with features reported in other plethodontid salamanders. The main anatomy and histology of the male and female cloacal regions of B. nicefori are similar to those of other salamanders; however, in comparison to other Bolitoglossa previously studied, B. nicefori has a relatively larger cloacal tube and a tubular rather than acinar spermatheca. As a common trait, the spermatheca has a common tube that diverges into two tubules, before branching into spermathecal tubules, horizontally arranged on frontal planes. The secretions of the spermathecal glands differed between reproductive and nonreproductive adult females. This secretory product consists of prevailing neutral carbohydrates that were related to the increase in ovarian follicular size during the breeding season. Sperm was found only in the spermatheca of reproductive periovulatory females, suggesting that the reproductive cycle involves a no long-term storage of sperm. Although males can produce sperm throughout the year, spermatophores, namely specialized structures involved in sperm transport, were found in their cloaca only during the breeding season. In these males, some of the cloaca-associated glands were seen to undergo change their secretory activity and their secretory products were related to spermatophore formation.
雄性和雌性有尾目蝾螈的泄殖腔都有与生殖活动相关的特殊腺体。玻利托戈斯氏蝾螈的生殖周期的特点是雄性全年都有生殖能力，而雌性只有几个月的生殖期。为了确定与生殖活动相关的泄殖腔结构是否存在形态和组织化学上的变化，我们对玻利托戈斯氏蝾螈不同繁殖周期阶段的雌雄标本的泄殖腔区域进行了研究，使用了光学显微镜，并与其他有尾目蝾螈的特征进行了比较。玻利托戈斯氏蝾螈的雌雄泄殖区的主要解剖结构和组织学与其他蝾螈相似；然而，与之前研究过的其他玻利托戈斯氏蝾螈相比，玻利托戈斯氏蝾螈的泄殖腔管相对较大，且精囊为管状而非囊状。作为一个共同特征，精囊有一个共同的管，在分支为精囊管之前分为两个管，精囊管在额平面上水平排列。在繁殖和非繁殖成年雌性之间，精囊腺的分泌物不同。这种分泌产物主要由中性碳水化合物组成，与繁殖季节卵巢滤泡大小的增加有关。只有在繁殖期的排卵前雌性的精囊中才发现精子，这表明生殖周期不涉及精子的长期储存。虽然雄性全年都能产生精子，但在繁殖期才在其泄殖腔中发现精子栓，即参与精子运输的特殊结构。在这些雄性中，一些与泄殖腔相关的腺体被发现其分泌活动发生变化，它们的分泌产物与精子栓的形成有关。
