Influence of temperature on reproduction and length of metamorphosis in Xenopus laevis (Amphibia: Anura)

Figures & data

Table I. Evidence of pairs.

	Gender in the couple
Courier registration number	Male	Female
1.	Albino	Albino
2.	Dark^a,b	Dark^b
3.	Dark^a,b	Albino
4.	Albino	Dark^b
5.	Albino	Dark^b

^aMale from own offspring.

^bNatural coloured individuals.

Table II. Mating data, number of individuals in each category and their colour form.

Mating number	1.	2.	3.	4.	5.
Date	5. 05. 2016	7. 05. 2016	15. 05. 2016	21. 05. 2016	22. 05. 2016
Parenting couple no.	1	4	5	2	1
Number of eggs in pieces	200	150	300	100	200
Number of sprouts in pieces	180	130	98	260	150
Number of metamorphosed individuals in pieces	63	41	98	29	57
Gender of the young	24♀, 39♂	26♀, 15♂	52♀, 46♂	19♀,10♂	23♀, 34♂
Colourful forms of	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%
chicks	albino form	natural form	natural form	natural form	albino form
Sexual maturity	35.0%	31.54%	37.69%	34.52%	38.0%
Mating number	6.	7.	8.	9.	10.
Date	27. 05. 2016	2. 06.2016	12. 06. 2016	15. 06. 2016	25. 06.2016
Parenting couple no.	4	3	5	2	1
Number of eggs in pieces	230	185	270	180	330
Number of sprouts in pieces	160	150	220	140	240
Number of metamorphosed individuals in pieces	46	36	62	31	51
Gender of the young	29♀, 17♂	11♀, 25♂	34♀, 28♂	15♀,16♂	22♀, 29♂
Colourful forms	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%
chicks	natural form	natural form	natural form	natural form	albino form
Sexual maturity	28.75%	24.0%	28.19%	22.14%	21.25%

Table III. Number of frogs in each group depending on the water temperature.

Mating number	Number of individuals in the group
	1^st group	2^nd group	3^rd group	4th group	5th group	6th group
1.	10*	10*	10*	11	11	11
2.	10*	10*	10	11	-	-
3.	16*	16*	16*	16	17	17
4.	10*	10	9	-	-	-
5.	10*	10*	10*	10	10	7
6.	10*	10*	10	10	6*	-
7.	10*	10*	10	6*	-	-
8.	10*	10*	10*	10	11	11
9.	10*	10	11	-	-	-
10.	10*	10*	10*	10	11	-

* means the water temperature 19°C (260 individuals); ** means  24°C (254 individuals).

Table IV. Average values of monitored indicators.

Indicator	Average values
Survived on average	30.11%
Average number of eggs deposited	214.5 pieces
Average number of hunted individuals	172.8 pieces
Average number of converted individuals	51.4 pieces
Number of albino-coloured pieces	120
Number of naturally coloured pieces	394

Figure 1. Correlation influence of time and temperature on the rate of metamorphosis and gender-converted individuals.

Table V. The influence of temperature and gender on the length of metamorphosis.

Factor	Standard deviation	t-test value	P
Sex of frogs	5.026	−271.177	***
Temperature	5.894	−154.428	***

*** P < 0.001.

Figure 2. Comparison of adults and tadpoles of Xenopus tropicalis and X. laevis. Adult body length is 5 and 10 cm respectively. A, tailbud; B, swimming tadpole; C, feeding tadpole. White scale bar = 1 mm (Hellsten et al. 2010).

Hellsten U, Harland RM, Gilchrist MJ, Hendrix D, Jurka J, Kapitonov V, Ovcharenko I, Putnam NH, Shu S, Taher L, Blitz IL, Blumberg B, Dichmann DS, Dubchak I, Amaya E, Detter JC, Fletcher R, Gerhard DS, Goodstein D, Graves T, Grigoriev IV, Grimwood J, Kawashima T, Lindquist E, Lucas SM, Mead PE, Mitros T, Ogino H, Ohta Y, Poliakov AV, Pollet N, Robert J, Salamov A, Sater AK, Schmutz J, Terry A, Vize PD, Warren WC, Wells D, Wills A, Wilson RK, Zimmerman LB, Zorn AM, Grainger R, Grammer T, Khokha MK, Richardson PM, Rokhsar DS. 2010. The genome of the western clawed frog Xenopus tropicalis. Science 5978:633–636.

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