Neurogenesis in the vocalization pathway of Xenopus laevis.

We examined possible contributions of neurogenesis to sex differences in the vocalization pathway of the South African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis. Birthdates of neurons were obtained from autoradiograms of animals receiving tritiated thymidine from gastrulation through 1 month after metamorphosis. Thymidine availability studies showed that 80% of the [3H]-thymidine injected into embryos and tadpoles was incorporated into the DNA of dividing cells within 3 hours. We observed 3 patterns of neurogenesis: late-short, a short burst of proliferation occurred late in development in the anterior preoptic area, the ventromedial nucleus of the thalamus, and the pretrigeminal nucleus of the dorsal tegmental area of the medulla; protracted-bimodal, a prolonged period of proliferation with an early and a late peak in the number of labeled cells occurred in the ventral striatum and in the ventrolateral and posterior nuclei of the thalamus; protracted-unimodal, a prolonged period of proliferation with a single early peak occurred in the inferior reticular formation and in the medial and lateral nucleus IX-X (containing laryngeal motor neurons). There were no differences between sexes in the number of tritiated thymidine labeled cells in any nucleus. The difference in nucleus IX-X neuron number in adults does not appear to result from sex differences in the proliferation of these cells during development. Since neurons in the vocalization pathway do not exhibit androgen receptors until after neurogenesis is complete, we also conclude that androgen probably does not regulate the genesis of these cells.