title: Large retinal ganglion cells that form independent, regular mosaics in the bufonoid frogs Bufo marinus and Litoria moorei.
abstract: Population-based methods were used to study labeled retinal ganglion cells from the cane toad Bufo marinus and the treefrog Litoria moorei, two visually competent bufonoid neobatrachians with contrasting habitats. In both, cells with large somata and thick dendrites formed distinct types with independent mosaics. The alpha(a), alpha(ab), and alpha(c) mosaics of Bufo in all major respects resembled those of ranids, studied previously, and could be provisionally matched to the same functional classes. As in other frogs, some alpha(a) cells were displaced and many alpha-cells of all types were asymmetric, but within each type all variants belonged to one mosaic. Nearest-neighbor analyses and spatial correlograms confirmed that all three mosaics were regular and independent. In Litoria, monostratified alpha(a) cells were not found. Instead, two bistratified types were present, distinguished individually by soma size and dendritic caliber and collectively by membership of independent mosaics: the larger (approximately 0.8% of all ganglion cells) was termed alpha1(ab) and the smaller (approximately 2.2%) alpha2ab. An alpha(c) cell type was also present, although too inconstantly labeled for mosaic analysis. Nearest-neighbor analyses and spatial correlograms confirmed that the two alpha(ab) mosaics were regular and independent. Densities, proportions, soma sizes, and mosaic statistics are tabulated for each species. The emergence of a consensus pattern of alpha-cell types in fishes and frogs, from which this treefrog partly diverges, offers new possibilities for studying correlations between function, phylogeny, ecology, and neuronal form.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, University College London, UK.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Shamim
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tóth
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Cook
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002024:Bufo marinus / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D002025:Bufonidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D003712:Dendrites / Q000648:ultrastructure; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000145:classification / Q000648:ultrastructure*