Cytogenetics of four foam-nesting frog species of the Physalaemus gracilis group (Anura, Leptodactylidae)

Intending to increase the knowledge about cytogenetics of Physalaemus and the sparsely studied P. gracilis group, we analyzed the karyotypes of P. carrizorum, P. gracilis, P. lisei, and P. sp. aff. gracilis. We studied chromosome morphology, heterochromatin patterns, Ag-NORs location and mapped the repetitive DNA sequence PcP190. All species showed diploid karyotypes composed of 22 bi-armed chromosomes and similar C- bands and Ag-NOR patterns. C-bands were mainly centromeric and pericentromeric; non-centromeric C-bands were detected on the telomeres of pair 1 in P. lisei, although polymorphic, and interstitially on pair 10 of P. gracilis. This last character is useful to distinguish P. gracilis from its sibling species P. sp. aff. gracilis. The Ag- NOR sites were detected on the long arms of chromosome pair 8 but with a variable position among species. Clusters of PcP190 showed centromeric and pericentromeric positions coincident with conspicuous C-bands, on pairs 2 and 9 in P. gracilis and P. sp. aff. gracilis, pair 3 in P. carrizorum, and pair 7 in P. lisei. These results significantly increase the knowledge about Physalaemus cytogenetics and encourage further studies on the satellite PcP190 in other genera of Leiuperinae to better understand its taxonomic distribution and the evolutionary dynamics.Fil: Ferro, Juan Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Posadas | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Posadas; ArgentinaFil: Taffarel, Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Posadas | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Posadas; ArgentinaFil: Tomatis, Cristian Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Posadas | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Posadas; ArgentinaFil: Borteiro, Claudio. Ministerio de Educación y Cultura. Museo Nacional de Historia Natural; UruguayFil: Kolenc, Francisco. Ministerio de Educación y Cultura. Museo Nacional de Historia Natural; UruguayFil: Pretto Gatto, Kaleb. Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Instituto de Biología; BrasilFil: Lourenço, Luciana B.. Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Instituto de Biología; BrasilFil: Baldo, Juan Diego. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Posadas | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Posadas; Argentin

Chondrocranial and oral morphology of Leptodactylid larvae

I focused my research on Leptodactylidae in order to determine the usefulness of chondrocranial and internal oral characters in systematic and phylogenetic studies of this anuran family. To achieve this goal, I examined the chondrocrania of eight species of the Leptodactylinae: Adenomera marmorata, Edalorhina perezi, Limnomedusa macroglossa, Physalaemus gracilis, P. henselii, P. pustulosus, Pleurodema brachyops, and P. tucumana. Furthermore, I analyzed and described the internal oral anatomy of Physalaeum us gracilis, P. henselii, and Limnomedusa macroglossa and the skeletogenesis of P. gracilis and P. pustulosus. Subsequently, I integrated these data with all available data on the larval chondrocrania and internal oral anatomy of the family Leptodactylidae

Bibliography of the frogs of the Leptodactylus clade - Adenomera, Hydrolaetare, Leptodactylus, Lithodytes (Ampbibia, Anura, Leptodactylidae). Volume 1. References

In the funded proposal to NSF, RdS and WRH included a project to create an electronic database for all publications containing mention of species names for Adenomera, Leptodactylus, and Vanzolinius (Vanzolinius has since been synonymized with Leptodactylus). At the beginning of the project, there were about 2,000 references on 3x5 cards. Miriam H. Heyer (MHH) was contracted to create the EndNote® file. MHH entered all citations into EndNote® and examined the literature citations in those publications to determine whether any of them contained information on the genera of interest. WRH anticipated that the intensive bibliography would yield a total of 3,000 references for the genera involved. That estimate was too modest – at the end of the NSF funding for the project, 31 May 2008, we had located more than 5,000 citations. The EndNote® file of 31 May 2008 is the basis for this bibliography. About halfway through the project, the Frost et al. publication (2006) appeared. We made two decisions based on this significant work: 1) We included citations for the genera Hydrolaetare and Lithodytes. The evidence provided by Frost et al. 2006 is compelling that Adenomera, Hydrolaetare, Leptodactylus, and Lithodytes form a robust clade. 2) The relationships of Lithodytes and Adenomera as sister taxa and both genera being the sister clade to Leptodactylus has been confirmed in other primarily molecular studies. The relationships involved thus appear to be robust. We differ philosophically, not on the basis of data, with the conclusion of Frost et al. 2006 to combine Adenomera, Leptodactylus, and Lithodytes into a single genus, Leptodactylus and recognize the subgenus Lithodytes for the clade Adenomera + Lithodytes. This topic will be pursued in a future publication involving RdS, WRH, and others