Hanken J, Klymkowsky M W, Alley K E, Jennings D H
Department of Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder 80309-0334, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 1997 Sep 22;264(1386):1349-54. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1997.0187.
The Puerto Rican direct-developing frog Eleutherodactylus coqui (Leptodactylidae) displays a novel mode of jaw muscle development for anuran amphibians. Unlike metamorphosing species, several larval-specific features never form in E. coqui; embryonic muscle primordia initially assume an abbreviated, mid-metamorphic configuration that is soon remodelled to form the adult morphology before hatching. Also lacking are both the distinct population of larval myofibres and the conspicuous, larval-to-adult myofibre turnover that are characteristic of muscle development in metamorphosing species. These modifications are part of a comprehensive alteration in embryonic cranial patterning that has accompanied life history evolution in this highly speciose lineage. Embryonic 'repatterning' in Eleutherodactylus may reflect underlying developmental mechanisms that mediate the integrated evolution of complex structures. Such mechanisms may also facilitate, in organisms with a primitively complex life cycle, the evolutionary dissociation of embryonic, larval, and adult features.
波多黎各直接发育的科奎细趾蟾(细趾蟾科)展现出一种无尾两栖动物新颖的颌肌发育模式。与变态发育的物种不同,科奎细趾蟾不会形成几种特定于幼体的特征;胚胎肌肉原基最初呈现出一种简化的、变态中期的形态,这种形态很快就会重塑,在孵化前形成成体形态。同样不存在的还有幼体肌纤维的独特群体以及明显的、从幼体到成体的肌纤维更新,而这些是变态发育物种肌肉发育的特征。这些改变是胚胎颅部模式全面变化的一部分,这种变化伴随着这个高度多样化谱系的生活史演化。细趾蟾胚胎的“重新模式化”可能反映了介导复杂结构综合演化的潜在发育机制。在具有原始复杂生命周期的生物体中,这样的机制也可能促进胚胎、幼体和成体特征的进化分离。