The regulation of skin‐pattern in an amphibian, Diemyctylus

Abstract

AbstractThe integument of the vermilion‐spotted newt contains three kinds of pigment‐–yellow, red, and black. The yellow is uniform and continuous over the whole body; the red and black are discrete, and are chiefly in large spots. The pattern does not change measurably in an adult individual.Functional changes in contraction of the scattered dorsal melanophores were uncommon. The only efficient single factors found were a long subjection to low temperature (expansion) and injection of pituitrin (contraction).Removal of skin was followed by a rapid mass migration of dermal elements into the wound area. Melanophores were thus furnished to a dorsal wound, and after several months black spots formed from these. Red pigment never regenerated nor migrated into a wound. Yellow pigment was formed in situ after the wound had completely healed.Auto‐, homo‐, and heterotransplants lost their pigment patterns and were gradually reorganized so as to conform in gross appearance to the surrounding pattern of the individual host's skin. The transformation was never complete in eight months, but new black spots and new yellow pigment eventually formed.The behavior of melanophores during morphogenesis differed for specific areas of the integument. Their movements and aggregation were highly coordinated among themselves.