A unique swim bladder-inner ear connection in a teleost fish revealed by a combined high-resolution microtomographic and three-dimensional histological study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In most modern bony fishes (teleosts) hearing improvement is often correlated with a close morphological relationship between the swim bladder or other gas-filled cavities and the saccule or more rarely with the utricle. A connection of an accessory hearing structure to the third end organ, the lagena, has not yet been reported. A recent study in the Asian cichlid Etroplus maculatus provided the first evidence that a swim bladder may come close to the lagena. Our study was designed to uncover the swim bladder-inner ear relationship in this species. We used a new approach by applying a combination of two high-resolution techniques, namely microtomographic (microCT) imaging and histological serial semithin sectioning, providing the basis for subsequent three-dimensional re

SUBMITTER: Schulz-Mirbach T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3720219 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature