Mechanisms of adaptive regulation of early development of Anuran amphibians dwelling the anthropogenically polluted water bodies
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Biology
Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119992, Russia
e-mail: Severtsova@mail.ru
Comparison of the gastrulation in three Anuran species has shown the possibility of evolution of earlier morphogenesis directed to adaptation to such new environmental factor as anthropogenic pollution of water bodies. Changing proportion of variability and correlation of the developing embryonic structures causes changes in the character of morphogenetic processes to the point of discoordinated development and formation of heterochronies and/or increased death rate. In the studied amphibian species, the increase of the concordant development in different populations resulted either from increased general correlation of morphogenesis or from the emergence of a group of traits with more interdependent development. Mechanisms of early development regulation comply with a single scheme, which indicates the nonspecificity of early embryogenesis reaction based on epigenetic regulation mechanisms.
