Genetic mechanism of "flying frog" gliding

 After the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period, species of multiple families of the Anurora independently evolved phenotypes related to climbing and gliding, and successfully colonized arboreal niches.

Black webbed tree frog, painted by Rao Tao 

 Recently, the research team of Li Jiatang from the Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, etc.

 The research team selected black-webbed tree frogs (full webs) and Baoxing tree frogs (micro webs) with developed webs for behavioral experiments

Morphological Comparison and Behavioral Experiments of Two Tree Frogs 

 The comparison of limb morphology of the two tree frog tadpoles during development suggests that there are different developmental patterns between them

Morphological comparison and temporal gene co-expression network analysis during limb development of two tree frog tadpoles 

The positive selection of PPL genesregulating keratin and cytoskeleton formation in tree frogs and the presence of amino acid substitutions conserved in tree frogs may contribute to the formation of suckers, a climbing-related trait of tree frogs

 This study systematically analyzed the genetic mechanism of "flying frog" gliding through a large number of field observations in the early stage, integrating morphological, behavioral, and omics research methods, providing a new perspective for humans to understand the interesting behavior of animals, and to understand the special functions of animals.

cover paper

 The research results were published as a cover paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences under the title "Genomic adaptations for arboreal locomotion in Asian flying treefrogs"

 Original link