The first see-through frog created by breeding: description, inheritance patterns and dermal chromatophore structure
Open accessAbstract
We have succeeded in creating see-through frogs from natural color mutants of the Japanese brown frog Rana japonica, which usually possesses an ochre or brown back; this coloration enables the organs, blood vessels and eggs to be observed through the skin without performing dissection. We crossed two kinds of recessive color mutant (black-eyed and gray-eyed) frogs through artificial insemination and F2 offspring produced frogs whose skin is translucent throughout the life cycle. Three kinds of dermal chromatophores—xanthophores, iridophores and melanophores—are observed in a layered arrangement in the skin of wild-type frogs, but few chromatophores were present in the skin of the see-through frogs. The translucent skin enables observation of organ growth and cancer formation and progression in the animal, which can be monitored over its entire life without the need for dissection. See-through frogs thus provide a useful animal model for environmental, medical and biological research.
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Transparent tetrapod models are basically unpigmented mutants that are not transparent.
“Furthermore, transparent tetrapod models are basically unpigmented mutants that are not transparent [e.g., (30–32)].”
From Glassfrogs conceal blood in their liver to maintain transparency (2022) · cites this paper as [31]
The paper supports the color-mutant aspect, but contradicts the claim that the resulting tetrapod model is not transparent. The Results (‘Creation of see-through frogs’) report translucent skin and visible internal organs; the Discussion qualifies this by saying the frogs appear pale dorsally but are almost transparent ventrally, not completely see-through. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Cited by
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Glassfrogs conceal blood in their liver to maintain transparency
Taboada, C., Delia, J., Chen, M., Ma, C., Peng, X., Zhu, X., Jiang, L., Vu, T., Zhou, Q., Yao, J., et al. (2022) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.abl6620 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
- Authors
- Sumida, M., Islam, M. M., Igawa, T., Kurabayashi, A., Furukawa, Y., Sano, N., Fujii, T., & Yoshizaki, N.
- Affiliations
- Hiroshima University (JP)
- Prefectural University of Hiroshima (JP)
- Gifu University (JP)
- Corresponding author
- Sumida, Masayuki
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2016-04-15
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 24431-24431
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4832234
- OpenAlex
- W2337403121
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 0.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (26830144)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › melanin and skin pigmentation
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Zebrafish Biomedical Research Applications
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology and Gene Regulation
- Keywords
- Rana japonica, color mutants, xanthophores, iridophores, melanophores, skin transparency, artificial insemination, mode of inheritance, animal models
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Anura, Breeding, Mutation, Phenotype, Skin, Skin Pigmentation, Inheritance Patterns
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