Model Organism: Frogs

Why frogs?

Frog embryos have distinct advantages for the study of digestive organ development:

• Accessibility: Frog embryos develop rapidly, and are large enough to undergo microsurgery or micro-injection to test gene function.
  

  

• Transparency: The development of the digestive organs can be monitored in living embryos over time.
  

  

• Morphogenesis: The complex elongation and rotation necessary to form the final anatomy of the amphibian GI tract are highly analogous to the events that occur in mammals.

Frog development:

Zahn et al., 2022

• Nieuwkoop and Faber stages
• NEW: Zahn stages
• Gosner stages
• Xenopus staging calculator
• NNY Lab Staging Atlas

Learn more:

• Xenbase
• The National Xenopus Resource
• AmphibiaWeb