By Koaw - May 2022,

Salamanders are amphibians with many nifty features. Some salamanders have tongues that shoot out at prey with blink-of-an-eye speed. And some salamanders emit nasty toxins as a defense. But the two features that really make salamanders stand out from the other tetrapods are gigantic genomes and extensive abilities of regeneration.

The adjacent video on this page explores salamander regeneration. From lost limbs to lost pieces of brain, salamanders regenerate almost anything.

Enjoy!

-K

References and Further Reading:

  1. D. Fox, "Genetically Bloated Beasts," Scientific American, vol. 326, no. 2, pp. 42-49, 2022.

  2. N. A. Campbell, J. B. Reece, L. A. Urry, M. L. Cain, S. A. Wasserman, P. V. Minorsky and R. B. Jackson, BIOLOGY, 8th ed., San Francisco: Pearson Education, Inc., 2008, pp. 434-441.

  3. S. C. Bishop, Handbook of Salamanders, Ithica: Comstock Publishing Company/ Cornell Paperbacks, 1967.

  4. T. R. Gregory, "Animal Genome Size Database," 2022. [Online]. Available: http://www.genomesize.com.

  5. G. Lertzman-Lepofsky, . A. Ø. Mooers and D. A. Greenberg, "Ecological constraints associated with genome size across salamander lineages," Proc. R. Soc., vol. 286, no. 1911, 2019.

  6. M. Okamoto, H. Ohsawa, H. Toshinori, O. Katsushi and T. Panagiotis, "Regeneration of Retinotectal Projections After Optic Tectum Removal in Adult Newts," Molecular Vision, pp. 2112-8, 2007.

  7. K. Agata and I. Takeshi, "Survey of the differences between regenerative and non-regenerative animals," Development, Growth, & Regeneration, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 143-152, 2012.

  8. H. E. Young, C. F. Bailey and B. K. Dalley, "Gross morphological analysis of limb regeneration in postmetamorphic adult Ambystoma," The Anatomical Record, vol. 206, no. 3, pp. 295-306, 1983.

  9. A. L. Haley and R. L. Mueller, "Transposable element diversity remains high in gigantic genomes (PRE PRINT)," Bio Rxiv , 2021.

  10. W. M. Itgen, D. S. Siegel, S. K. Sessions and R. L. Mueller, "Genome size drives morphological evolution in organ-specific ways (Pre Print)," bio Rxiv, 2021.

  11. J. 2. Pace and C. Feschotte, "The evolutionary hisotry of human DNA transposons: evidence for intense activity in primate lineage.," Genome Res., vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 422-32, 2007.

  12. A. Joven, A. Elewa and A. Simon, "Model systems for regeneration: salamanders," Development, vol. 146, no. 16, 2019.

  13. S. K. Sessions and D. B. Wake, "Forever young: Linking regeneration and genome size in salamanders," Developmental Dynamics, vol. 250, no. 6, pp. 768-778, 2020.

  14. J. I. Barr, C. A. Boisvert and P. W. Bateman, "At What Cost? Trade-Offs and Influences on Energetic Investment in Tail Regeneration in Lizards Following Autotomy," J. Dev. Biol., vol. 9, no. 4, 2021.

  15. K. Lust and E. M. Tanaka, "A Comparative Perspective on Brain Regeneration in Amphibians and Teleost Fish," Developmental Neurobiology, vol. 79, no. 5, pp. 424-436, 2019.