INTRODUCTION The temperatures currently used for amphibian cell and tissue culture appear to range from 26 °C (Seto, 1964) to 18 °C (Shah, 1964). The experiments of N. G. Stephenson & Tomkins (1964), in which Pseudophryne tadpole humeri and femora transplanted to chick chorioallantoic membranes at 38 °C showed definite growth, suggested the possible advantage of culturing other amphibian tissue...

Auditory hair cells in the amphibian papilla (APHCs) of the leopard frog, Rana pipiens pipiens, have a significantly higher permeability to water than that observed in mammalian hair cells. The insensitivity of water permeability in frog hair cells to extracellular mercury suggests that an amphibian homologue of the water channel aquaporin-4 (AQP4) may mediate water transport in these cells. Us...

1. Recent evidence of the important role of emerging diseases in amphibian population declines makes it increasingly important to understand how environmental changes affect amphibian immune systems. 2. Temperature-dependent immunity may be particularly important to amphibian disease dynamics, especially in temperate regions. Changes in temperature are expected to cause deviations away from opt...

The amphibian chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is a recently emerged pathogen that causes the infectious disease chytridiomycosis and has been implicated as a contributing factor in the global amphibian decline. Since its discovery, research has been focused on developing various methods of mitigating the impact of chytridiomycosis on amphibian hosts but little attention has been g...

Investigation into the causes underlying the rapid, global amphibian decline provides critical insight into the effects of changing ecosystems. Hypothesized and confirmed links between amphibian declines, disease, and environmental changes are increasingly represented in published literature. However, there are few long-term amphibian studies that include data on population size, abnormality/in...

It is generally agreed that reactive oxygen species (ROS) contribute to skin aging, skin disorders, and skin diseases. Skin possesses an extremely efficient antioxidant system. This antioxidant activity is conferred by two systems: antioxidant enzymes and small molecules that can scavenge ROS by donating electrons. No gene-encoded secreted ROS scavengers have been reported. Amphibian skin is a ...

Urbanisation currently threatens over one-third of the world’s known amphibian species. The main threats of urbanisation to amphibian populations are habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and isolation, and degradation of habitat quality. A complex array of interacting biotic and abiotic factors impact amphibians in urban and urbanising landscapes. These can lead to a decrease in species richness...

UNLABELLED BACKGROUND This report presents a detailed description of hepatic architecture in 46 amphibian livers by light microscopy, and extensively discusses the phylogenetic viewpoint. RESULTS The 46 amphibian livers showed a variety of histological features, but anurans were the same as in mammalian livers. The hepatocyte-sinusoidal structures of the amphibian livers were classified in...

Current pesticide risk assessment does not specifically consider amphibians. Amphibians in the aquatic environment (aquatic life stages or postmetamorphic aquatic amphibians) and terrestrial living juvenile or adult amphibians are assumed to be covered by the risk assessment for aquatic invertebrates and fish, or mammals and birds, respectively. This procedure has been evaluated as being suffic...

Andrew R. Blaustein and Joseph M. Kiesecker Department of Zoology, 3029 Cordley Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-2914, USA. Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, 208 Mueller Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802, USA. *Correspondence: E-mail: [email protected] Abstract As part of an overall ‘‘biodiversity crisis’’ many amphibian populations are in decli...