A question of homology for chordate adhesive organs.

Abstract

The larvae of aquatic vertebrates sometimes possess a transient, mucus-secreting gland on their heads. The most studied of these organs is the Xenopus cement gland. The tadpoles use it to attach to plants or to the water surface, supposedly to hide from predators and save energy before they can swim or feed. Moreover their gland, being innervated by trigeminal fibres, also mediates a locomotor stopping response when the larvae encounter an obstacle. We have described an equivalent organ on the head of the teleost Astyanax mexicanus, that we have called the casquette because of its shape and position on the larval head. The casquette is transient, sticky, secretes mucus, is innervated by the trigeminal ganglion, has an inhibitory function on larval swimming behavior, and expresses Bmp4 and Pitx1/2 during embryogenesis. Here we further discuss the nature of the equivalence between the frog cement gland and the fish casquette, and highlight the usefulness of non-conventional model species to decipher developmental and evolutionary mechanisms of morphological variations.