Morphological study of the desert heteromyid kidney with emphasis on the genus perognathus

Abstract

The renal morphology of three species of desert dwelling Perognathus rodents were compared to Dipodomys and two species of sympatric cricetid rodents. Perognathus has a highly adapted unipolar kidney capable of urine concentration up to 7,500 mOsm/KgH2O. Two major modifications were observed in these kidneys. (1) There is elongation of both the inner and outer medulla. When the thickness of the regions in P. penicillatus are factored by kidney weight it is found that the outer medulla is 3.8 and the inner medulla is 2.2 times greater in length than the extensively studied Dipodomys merriami. (2) There is great variance in glomerular size with approximately 20% of the glomeruli being very large and located in the juxta medullary region. These glomeruli are 1.5--1.6 times greater in diameter than the more numerous superficial glomeruli. These structural modifications are quantitated and the functional implications are discussed particularly in relation to urine concentrating ability in these desert inhabitants.

Characterization of the transcriptome, nucleotide sequence polymorphism, and natural selection in the desert adapted mousePeromyscus eremicus

“…These studies, many of which have been enabled by newer sequencing technologies, provide a foundation for studies of renal genomics in non-model organisms. Because researchers have long been interested in desert adaptation, a number of studies have looked at the morphology or expression of single genes in the renal tissues of desert adapted rodents Phyllotis darwini (Gallardo, Cortés & Bozinovic, 2005), Psammomys obesus (Kaissling et al, 1975), and Perognathus penicillatus (Altschuler et al, 1979). More recently, full renal transcriptomes have been generated for Dipodomys spectabilis and Chaetodipus baileyi , (Marra, Romero & DeWoody, 2014) as well as Abrothrix olivacea (Giorello et al, 2014).…”

Characterization of the transcriptome, nucleotide sequence polymorphism, and natural selection in the desert adapted mousePeromyscus eremicus

“…These studies, many of which have been enabled by newer sequencing technologies, provide a foundation for studies of renal genomics in non-model organisms. Because researchers have long been interested in desert adaptation, a number of studies have looked at the morphology or expression of single genes in the renal tissues of desert adapted rodents Phyllotis darwini (Gallardo et al, 2005), Psammomys obesus (Kaissling et al, 1975), and Perognathus penicillatus (Altschuler et al, 1979). More recently, full renal transcriptomes have been generated for Dipodomys spectabilis and Chaetodipus baileyi , (Marra et al, 2014) as well as Abrothrix olivacea (Giorello et al, 2014).…”

Morphology of the Loop of Henle, Distal Tubule, and Collecting Duct

“…It does not include a description of the structural organization Most of the data presented concern the nephron of the rat and other laboratory animals. In addition to the rat (5,82,237,243,271,373,435), information is available about the nephron of the mouse (87,239), golden hamster (12), several other rodent species [including Psammomys obesus (28,29,187,192), Perognathus (7,298), and Octodon degus (30)], rabbit (194,253), cat (237), dog (66, 433), and minipig (89). The nephron fine structure of the human kidney had been described in a series of publications by Bulger, Myers,Tisher,and Trump (69,297,406,407) in the 1960s, but little information was gained in the 20 years that followed.…”