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Living in darkness: Exploring adaptation of Proteus anguinus in 3 dimensions by X-ray imaging

BACKGROUND: Lightless caves can harbour a wide range of living organisms. Cave animals have evolved a set of morphological, physiological, and behavioural adaptations known as troglomorphisms, enabling their survival in the perpetual darkness, narrow temperature and humidity ranges, and nutrient sca...

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Autores principales: Tesařová, Markéta, Mancini, Lucia, Mauri, Edgardo, Aljančič, Gregor, Năpăruş-Aljančič, Magdalena, Kostanjšek, Rok, Bizjak Mali, Lilijana, Zikmund, Tomáš, Kaucká, Markéta, Papi, Federica, Goyens, Jana, Bouchnita, Anass, Hellander, Andreas, Adameyko, Igor, Kaiser, Jozef
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8982192/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35380661
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giac030
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author Tesařová, Markéta
Mancini, Lucia
Mauri, Edgardo
Aljančič, Gregor
Năpăruş-Aljančič, Magdalena
Kostanjšek, Rok
Bizjak Mali, Lilijana
Zikmund, Tomáš
Kaucká, Markéta
Papi, Federica
Goyens, Jana
Bouchnita, Anass
Hellander, Andreas
Adameyko, Igor
Kaiser, Jozef
author_facet Tesařová, Markéta
Mancini, Lucia
Mauri, Edgardo
Aljančič, Gregor
Năpăruş-Aljančič, Magdalena
Kostanjšek, Rok
Bizjak Mali, Lilijana
Zikmund, Tomáš
Kaucká, Markéta
Papi, Federica
Goyens, Jana
Bouchnita, Anass
Hellander, Andreas
Adameyko, Igor
Kaiser, Jozef
author_sort Tesařová, Markéta
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Lightless caves can harbour a wide range of living organisms. Cave animals have evolved a set of morphological, physiological, and behavioural adaptations known as troglomorphisms, enabling their survival in the perpetual darkness, narrow temperature and humidity ranges, and nutrient scarcity of the subterranean environment. In this study, we focused on adaptations of skull shape and sensory systems in the blind cave salamander, Proteus anguinus, also known as olm or simply proteus—the largest cave tetrapod and the only European amphibian living exclusively in subterranean environments. This extraordinary amphibian compensates for the loss of sight by enhanced non-visual sensory systems including mechanoreceptors, electroreceptors, and chemoreceptors. We compared developmental stages of P. anguinus with Ambystoma mexicanum, also known as axolotl, to make an exemplary comparison between cave- and surface-dwelling paedomorphic salamanders. FINDINGS: We used contrast-enhanced X-ray computed microtomography for the 3D segmentation of the soft tissues in the head of P. anguinus and A. mexicanum. Sensory organs were visualized to elucidate how the animal is adapted to living in complete darkness. X-ray microCT datasets were provided along with 3D models for larval, juvenile, and adult specimens, showing the cartilage of the chondrocranium and the position, shape, and size of the brain, eyes, and olfactory epithelium. CONCLUSIONS: P. anguinus still keeps some of its secrets. Our high-resolution X-ray microCT scans together with 3D models of the anatomical structures in the head may help to elucidate the nature and origin of the mechanisms behind its adaptations to the subterranean environment, which led to a series of troglomorphisms.
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spelling pubmed-89821922022-04-05 Living in darkness: Exploring adaptation of Proteus anguinus in 3 dimensions by X-ray imaging Tesařová, Markéta Mancini, Lucia Mauri, Edgardo Aljančič, Gregor Năpăruş-Aljančič, Magdalena Kostanjšek, Rok Bizjak Mali, Lilijana Zikmund, Tomáš Kaucká, Markéta Papi, Federica Goyens, Jana Bouchnita, Anass Hellander, Andreas Adameyko, Igor Kaiser, Jozef Gigascience Data Note BACKGROUND: Lightless caves can harbour a wide range of living organisms. Cave animals have evolved a set of morphological, physiological, and behavioural adaptations known as troglomorphisms, enabling their survival in the perpetual darkness, narrow temperature and humidity ranges, and nutrient scarcity of the subterranean environment. In this study, we focused on adaptations of skull shape and sensory systems in the blind cave salamander, Proteus anguinus, also known as olm or simply proteus—the largest cave tetrapod and the only European amphibian living exclusively in subterranean environments. This extraordinary amphibian compensates for the loss of sight by enhanced non-visual sensory systems including mechanoreceptors, electroreceptors, and chemoreceptors. We compared developmental stages of P. anguinus with Ambystoma mexicanum, also known as axolotl, to make an exemplary comparison between cave- and surface-dwelling paedomorphic salamanders. FINDINGS: We used contrast-enhanced X-ray computed microtomography for the 3D segmentation of the soft tissues in the head of P. anguinus and A. mexicanum. Sensory organs were visualized to elucidate how the animal is adapted to living in complete darkness. X-ray microCT datasets were provided along with 3D models for larval, juvenile, and adult specimens, showing the cartilage of the chondrocranium and the position, shape, and size of the brain, eyes, and olfactory epithelium. CONCLUSIONS: P. anguinus still keeps some of its secrets. Our high-resolution X-ray microCT scans together with 3D models of the anatomical structures in the head may help to elucidate the nature and origin of the mechanisms behind its adaptations to the subterranean environment, which led to a series of troglomorphisms. Oxford University Press 2022-04-05 /pmc/articles/PMC8982192/ /pubmed/35380661 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giac030 Text en © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press GigaScience. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Data Note
Tesařová, Markéta
Mancini, Lucia
Mauri, Edgardo
Aljančič, Gregor
Năpăruş-Aljančič, Magdalena
Kostanjšek, Rok
Bizjak Mali, Lilijana
Zikmund, Tomáš
Kaucká, Markéta
Papi, Federica
Goyens, Jana
Bouchnita, Anass
Hellander, Andreas
Adameyko, Igor
Kaiser, Jozef
Living in darkness: Exploring adaptation of Proteus anguinus in 3 dimensions by X-ray imaging
title Living in darkness: Exploring adaptation of Proteus anguinus in 3 dimensions by X-ray imaging
title_full Living in darkness: Exploring adaptation of Proteus anguinus in 3 dimensions by X-ray imaging
title_fullStr Living in darkness: Exploring adaptation of Proteus anguinus in 3 dimensions by X-ray imaging
title_full_unstemmed Living in darkness: Exploring adaptation of Proteus anguinus in 3 dimensions by X-ray imaging
title_short Living in darkness: Exploring adaptation of Proteus anguinus in 3 dimensions by X-ray imaging
title_sort living in darkness: exploring adaptation of proteus anguinus in 3 dimensions by x-ray imaging
topic Data Note
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8982192/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35380661
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giac030
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