Department of Animal Developmental Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Wrocław, Sienkiewicza 21, Wrocław, Poland.
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Ilkovičova 6, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Sci Rep. 2022 Apr 19;12(1):6447. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-10283-z.
Pseudoscorpions are small matrotrophic chelicerates. The embryos develop in a brood sac and feed on the nutritive fluid provided by the female. It was widely accepted that the nutritive fluid is synthesized in the ovary. Recent studies have shown that in Chelifer cancroides, a representative of Cheliferidae, considered one of the most derived pseudoscorpion families, the nutritive fluid is produced not only in the ovary but also in the oviducts. Since evolution of adaptations for matrotrophy in pseudoscorpions is poorly known, we aimed to verify our hypothesis that pseudoscorpions of the family Chernetidae, closely related to Cheliferidae, share the traits of adaptations to matrotrophy in the structure and function of the female reproductive system with C. cancroides. We analysed the structure of the ovary and oviducts in five representatives of chernetids with light, confocal, and transmission electron microscopy. The results confirmed our hypothesis and provided new data which broaden our knowledge of matrotrophic pseudoscorpions. We show that in chernetids, the ovary and oviducts undergo significant alterations including their size, multistep hypertrophy and polyploidization of the epithelial cells involved in secretion of the nutritive fluid, the complex secretory activity of the epithelial cells, massive degeneration of the epithelial cells that have completed secretion, and epithelium renewal.
伪蝎是小型的有胎盘食卵蛛形纲动物。胚胎在育囊内发育，以雌性提供的营养液为食。人们普遍认为营养液是在卵巢中合成的。最近的研究表明，在 Chelifer cancroides 中，Cheliferidae 的一个代表，被认为是最衍生的伪蝎科之一，营养液不仅在卵巢中产生，而且在输卵管中也产生。由于伪蝎的有胎盘适应进化知之甚少，我们旨在验证我们的假设，即与 Cheliferidae 密切相关的 Chernetidae 家族的伪蝎在雌性生殖系统的结构和功能上与 C. cancroides 共享适应有胎盘的特征。我们用光学显微镜、共聚焦显微镜和透射电子显微镜分析了五种 Chernetidae 代表的卵巢和输卵管的结构。结果证实了我们的假设，并提供了新的数据，拓宽了我们对有胎盘伪蝎的认识。我们表明，在 Chernetidae 中，卵巢和输卵管发生了显著的变化，包括它们的大小、多步肥大和参与分泌营养液的上皮细胞的多倍体化、上皮细胞的复杂分泌活动、已完成分泌的上皮细胞的大量退化以及上皮细胞的更新。
