The relative concentrations of plasma uric acid and creatinine, the alkaline phosphatase activities and the 24 hour urinary excretion of hydroxyproline together with sexual maturity ratings are reported in a population of normal British schoolchildren studied longitudinally over a three-year period. The children were all of European origin and their ages ranged from 7 to 17 years. Plasma urate rose sharply during puberty in the boys but not in the girls. Plasma creatinine rose in both sexes during maturation. Plasma alkaline phosphatase activity rose to a peak at genital maturity 3(G3) in boys and breast maturity 2(B2) in girls and subsequently fell rapidly in both sexes. The 24-hour urinary secretion of hydroxyproline was high in young boys and rose to a peak during G3 and G4 and then fell rapidly. In girls there was no significant peak in concentrations, although there was a fall during B4 and B5, and levels were higher throughout puberty than those reported for adult females.

Frogs play important ecological roles as sentinels, insect control and food sources. Several species are important model organisms for scientific research to study embryogenesis, development, immune function, and endocrine signaling. The globally-distributed Ranidae (true frogs) are the largest frog family, and have substantial evolutionary distance from the model laboratory Xenopus frog species. Consequently, the extensive Xenopus genomic resources are of limited utility for Ranids and related frog species. More widely applicable amphibian genomic data is urgently needed as more than two-thirds of known species are currently threatened or are undergoing population declines.Herein, we report on the first genome sequence of a Ranid species, an adult male North American bullfrog (Rana [Lithobates] catesbeiana). We assembled high-depth Illumina reads (66-fold coverage), into a 5.8 Gbp (NG50 = 57.7 kbp) draft genome using ABySS v1.9.0. The assembly was scaffolded with LINKS and RAILS using pseudo-long-reads from targeted de novo assembler Kollector and Illumina Synthetic Long-Reads, as well as reads from long fragment (MPET) libraries. We predicted over 22,000 protein-coding genes using the MAKER2 pipeline and identified the genomic loci of 6,227 candidate long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) from a composite reference bullfrog transcriptome. Mitochondrial sequence analysis supportedLithobates as a subgenus of Rana. RNA-Seq experiments identified ~6,000 thyroid hormoneresponsive transcripts in the back skin of premetamorphic tadpoles; the majority of which regulate DNA/RNA processing. Moreover, 1/6 th of differentially-expressed transcripts were putative lncRNAs. Our draft bullfrog genome will serve as a useful resource for the amphibian research community.