Embryological staging of the Zebra Finch,Taeniopygia guttata

Abstract

Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata) are the most commonly used laboratory songbird species, yet their embryological development has been poorly characterized. Most studies to date apply Hamburger and Hamilton stages derived from chicken development; however, significant differences in development between precocial and altricial species suggest that they may not be directly comparable. We provide the first detailed description of embryological development in the Zebra Finch under standard artificial incubation. These descriptions confirm that some of the features used to classify chicken embryos into stages are not applicable in an altricial bird such as the Zebra Finch. This staging protocol will help to standardize future studies of embryological development in the Zebra Finch. J. Morphol. 274:1090–1110, 2013. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Morphology Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Heterochronic events in the ontogeny of Columba livia, Coturnix coturnix, and Gallus gallus domesticus

“…Comparative embryonic prehatchling development between altricial and precocial birds has been poorly explored (Yamasaki and Tonosaki, 1988;Köppl et al, 2005;Ainsworth et al, 2009;Olea and Sandoval, 2012;Murray et al, 2013, Almeida et al, 2015 but this scarce information shows that growth rate is critical to characterize the development patterns and provides an excellent opportunity to analyze heterochronic events (Blom and Lilja 2005).…”

Staging tables for avian embryos: a little history

“…A more or less complete coverage of the entire embryonic period has been described for Japanese quail (Zacchei, 1961) (from stage 4 onwards also described by (Ainsworth et al, 2010), Adélie penguin (Herbert, 1967), emu: (Nagai et al, 2011), turkey (Mun and Kosin, 1960), pheasant: (Fant, 1957), Pekin duck: (Kaltofen, 1971), mallard duck (Anas boschas) (Koecke, 1958) (including comparison of these stages to those of Hamburger and Hamilton and of Keibel and Abraham), society finch (Yamasaki and Tonosaki, 1988), zebra finch (Murray et al, 2013) and lapwing (Grosser and Tandler, 1909). Partial tables are available for many other bird species, sources for a subset of which are listed in a comprehensive book (Starck and Ricklefs, 1998) (see Table 2.3, page 40).…”

Dissection and Downstream Analysis of Zebra Finch Embryos at Early Stages of Development

“…These characteristics allow the use of zebra finch to address the need for a model organism that integrates development, genetics, and behavioral aspects of language. The dissections methods detailed below, combined with a recently developed staging guide specific to zebra finch 22 , make the zebra finch an increasingly useful standardized developmental model organism. However, obtaining embryos at early stages can be daunting.…”

“…Note: Remove eggs after 36 hr of incubation to dissect stage 6 embryos ( Figure 4A) 22 and remove eggs after 56 hr of incubation to dissect stage 12 embryos ( Figure 3A) 22 . 4.…”

“…Note: For stages 1 -9 22 , the embryonic disk is less than 6 mm in diameter and is visible as a faint, slightly opaque disk on the surface of the yolk -see Figure 1 for reference. For stages 10 and older 22 , blood pools allow improved visibility of the embryo, but take care to avoid puncturing the yolk sac, as this makes locating the embryo difficult.…”