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

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