Genome size, cell size, and the evolution of enucleated erythrocytes in attenuate salamanders.

ABSTRACT: Within the salamander family Plethodontidae, five different clades have evolved high levels of enucleated red blood cells, which are extremely unusual among non-mammalian vertebrates. In each of these five clades, the salamanders have large genomes and miniaturized or attenuated body forms. Such a correlation suggests that the loss of nuclei in red blood cells may be related, in part, to the interaction between large genome size and small body size, which has been shown to have profound morphological consequences for the nervous and visual systems in plethodontids. Previous work has demonstrated that variation in both the level of enucleated cells and the size of the nuclear genome exists among species of the monophyletic plethodontid genus Batrachoseps. Here, we report extensive intraspec

SUBMITTER: Mueller RL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2435017 | biostudies-literature | 2008

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature