Abstract
In amphibians a transition of hemoglobin from larval to adult types has been reported to occur at metamorphosis. The hemoglobin transition was electrophoretically analyzed in metamorphosis-arrested larvae of a salamander. Hynobius retardatus, which had been reported to show neotenic reproduction in a specific environment in Hokkaido, Japan. In the normal controls and metamorphosis-arrested larvae which had been treated with goitrogens or whose thyroid gland had been surgically removed at embryonic stages, the globin transition from larval to adult types was completed at least within 190 days after stage 34 (long tailbud stage, when the operation was done). Contrary to this, in the metamorphosis-arrested larvae whose pituitary gland had been surgically removed at embryonic stages, the hemoglobin transition was extraordinarily retarded, and thus was not completed within our experimental period (330 days after stage 34). These findings suggest that the transition of hemoglobin from larval to adult types depends on the activity of the pituitary gland rather than the activity of the thyroid gland. J. Exp. Zool. 278:87–92, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
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