Amphibians as Animal Models for Laboratory Research in Physiology

Abstract

The concept of animal models is well honored, and amphibians have played a prominent part in the success of using key species to discover new information about all animals. As animal models, amphibians offer several advantages that include a well-understood basic physiology, a taxonomic diversity well suited to comparative studies, tolerance to temperature and oxygen variation, and a greater similarity to humans than many other currently popular animal models. Amphibians now account for approximately 1/4 to 1/3 of lower vertebrate and invertebrate research, and this proportion is especially true in physiological research, as evident from the high profile of amphibians as animal models in Nobel Prize research. Currently, amphibians play prominent roles in research in the physiology of musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, renal, respiratory, reproductive, and sensory systems. Amphibians are also used extensively in physiological studies aimed at generating new insights in evolutionary biology, especially in the investigation of the evolution of air breathing and terrestriality. Environmental physiology also utilizes amphibians, ranging from studies of cryoprotectants for tissue preservation to physiological reactions to hypergravity and space exploration. Amphibians are also playing a key role in studies of environmental endocrine disruptors that are having disproportionately large effects on amphibian populations and where specific species can serve as sentinel species for environmental pollution. Finally, amphibian genera such as Xenopus, a genus relatively well understood metabolically and physiologically, will continue to contribute increasingly in this new era of systems biology and "X-omics."

Xenopus laevis oocyte maturation is affected by metal chlorides

“…Such assertion is especially relevant in physiological research and in evolutionary biology, but also in environmental studies (Burggren and Warburton, 2007). Thus, observations concerning growth, development, reproduction and physiology might be gathered easily and could be applied in aquatic ecotoxicology.…”

First-generation linkage map for the common frog Rana temporaria reveals sex-linkage group

“…Amphibians are important model organisms in developmental, ecological and evolutionary studies (Cano et al, 2004;Burggren and Warburton, 2007;Smith and Voss, 2007;Laurila et al, 2008;Hellsten et al, 2010). In addition, their phylogenetic placement between fishes and terrestrial amniotes makes them especially useful for studies of character evolution in vertebrates (Smith and Voss, 2006).…”

Effects of variations of osmolarity on behavior in Leptodactylus macrosternum Miranda-Ribeiro, 1926 (Leptodactylidae, Anura, Amphibia)

“…These traits make it possible to understand the morphological and physiological adaptations present in this group (Burggren, 1999;Burggren and Warburton, 2007) and these adaptations may also be associated to specific behavioral responses. Species which do not present either physiological or morphological adaptations, to cope with water loss by evapotranspiration, may use behavioral responses as an important mechanism to resist dehydration (Wells, 2007).…”