Dataset Information

Osteology of Batrachuperus yenyuanensis (Urodela, Hynobiidae), a high-altitude mountain stream salamander from western China.

ABSTRACT: Batrachuperus yenyuanensis, commonly known as Yenyuan Stream Salamander, is a hynobiid species inhabiting high-altitude (2440-4025 m above sea level) mountain stream and pond environments along the eastern fringe of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in western Sichuan Province, China. Although the species has been known for almost 70 years since its initial discovery in 1950, a thorough osteological description has never been provided. Our study provides a detailed account of the bony anatomy of this species, based on micro computed tomography scanning of multiple specimens collected from the type locality Shuangertang at Bailinshan, Yanyuan County, and several other localities in Sichuan Province. Our revised species diagnosis utilizes both bony and soft anatomical features. Comparative study of the specimens from the type locality in Yanyuan area with those from the nearby Xichang and Mianning areas confirms that they all pertain to Batrachuperus yenyuanensis, thereby removing doubt on the occurrence of the species in the latter areas. With this confirmation, the distribution of the species is extended from the type locality northwards some 180 km to the Mianning area, on both the west and east sides of the Yalong River, which is a major tributary of the upper Yangtze River. This distribution pattern indicates that the biogeographic origin and historical evolution of the species are closely associated with the orogeny of the Hengduan Mountains and formation of the Yalong River. Given the basalmost position of Batrachuperus yenyuanensis in relation to other congeneric species based on molecular studies, however, early expansion of the species distribution by dispersal is expected following the origin of the genus in early-middle Miocene in western Sichuan Province. Thus, the species may well have achieved its current distribution in western Sichuan before the drastic uplift of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in Pliocene.

SUBMITTER: Jia J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6347256 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Osteology of Batrachuperus yenyuanensis (Urodela, Hynobiidae), a high-altitude mountain stream salamander from western China.

Jia Jia J Jiang Jian-Ping JP Zhang Mei-Hua MH Gao Ke-Qin KQ

PloS one 20190125 1

Batrachuperus yenyuanensis, commonly known as Yenyuan Stream Salamander, is a hynobiid species inhabiting high-altitude (2440-4025 m above sea level) mountain stream and pond environments along the eastern fringe of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in western Sichuan Province, China. Although the species has been known for almost 70 years since its initial discovery in 1950, a thorough osteological description has never been provided. Our study provides a detailed account of the bony anatomy of this ...[more]

PMID: 30682102

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Project description:The Longdong Stream Salamander Batrachuperus londongensis, living in a mountain stream environment at Mt. Emei in Sichuan Province, China, represents a rare species that is facultatively neotenic in the family Hynobiidae. Although the species has been known to science for some 40 years since its initial discovery in the late 1970s, anatomical details of its osteology remain poorly understood and developmental information is still lacking for the species. This study (1) provides a detailed osteological account of B. londongensis based on micro-CT scanning and clearing and staining of multiple specimens from the type locality; (2) provides a discussion of intraspecific variation related to life-history differences; and (3) presents a discussion on limb features related to morphological evolution of limb patterns correlative with ecological adaptation to mountain stream environments. Osteological comparisons with congeneric species has led to recognition of several diagnostic features that are unique to B. londongensis, including: vomers widely separated from one another, lacking a midline contact; presence of uncommon perichondral ossification of the ascending process of the palatoquadrate as part of the suspensorium; and presence of a prominent posterodorsal process of the scapular blade, which serves as a ligamentous insertion of the levator muscle of the scapula. In addition, some but not all neotenic individuals retain the palatine as a discrete element, indicative of its delayed absorption after sexual maturity. Postmetamorphic and neotenic individuals are strikingly different in the complexity of hyobranchial structures. Neotenes display a high degree of ossification of hyobranchial elements, tend to increase ossification of both hypobranchial I and ceratobranchial I during aging, and retain fully ossified ceratobranchial III and IV; in contrast, these elements remain entirely cartilaginous or are totally lost by resorption in postmetamorphic individuals. In addition, all postmetamorphic forms display an inverted "T"-shaped basibranchial II, whereas neotenes show transformation from a "fork"-shaped to the "T"-shaped configuration after sexual maturity. B. londongensis displays a mosaic of apomorphic and plesiomorphic states in its limb ossifications: presence of a single centrale element in both the manus and pes is a derived condition in Hynobiidae and other families as well, whereas retention of a postminimus in the pes is obviously plesiomorphic within Urodela. Reduction in number of digits from five to four in the pes and possession of a cornified sheath covering the terminal phalanges are also derived features shared with some but not all mountain stream salamanders that are adapted to a similar type of environment.

Project description:The Yenyuan stream salamander (Batrachuperus yenyuanensis) has been previously evaluated with regards to phylogeny, population genetics, and hematology, but genomic information is sparse due to the giant genome size of salamanders which contain highly repetitive sequences, thus resulting in the lack of a complete reference genome. This study evaluates the encoding genetic sequences and provides the first transcriptome assembly of Yenyuan stream salamander based on mixed samples from the liver, spermary, muscle and spleen tissues. Using this transcriptome assembly and available encoding sequences from other vertebrates, the gene families, phylogenetic status, and species divergence time were compared or estimated. A total of 13,750 encoding sequences were successfully obtained from the transcriptome assembly of Yenyuan stream salamander, estimated to contain 40.1% of the unigenes represented in tetrapod databases. A total of 88.79% of these genes could be annotated to a biological function by current databases. Through gene family clustering, we found multiple possible isoforms of the Scribble gene-whose function is related to regeneration-based on sequence similarity. Meanwhile, we constructed a robust phylogenetic tree based on 56 single-copy orthologues, which indicates that based on phylogenetic position, the Yenyuan stream salamander presents the closest relationship with the Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) of the investigated vertebrates. Based on the fossil-calibrated phylogeny, we estimated that the lineage divergence between the ancestral Yenyuan stream salamander and the Chinese giant salamander may have occurred during the Cretaceous period (~78.4 million years ago). In conclusion, this study not only provides a candidate gene that is valuable for exploring the remarkable capacity of regeneration in the future, but also gives an interesting insight into the understanding of Yenyuan stream salamander by this first transcriptome assembly.

Dataset Information

Osteology of Batrachuperus yenyuanensis (Urodela, Hynobiidae), a high-altitude mountain stream salamander from western China.

Publications

Osteology of Batrachuperus yenyuanensis (Urodela, Hynobiidae), a high-altitude mountain stream salamander from western China.

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