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ABSTRACT
Model organisms have long been important in biology and medicine due to their specific characteristics. Amphibians, especially Xenopus, play key roles in answering fundamental questions on developmental biology, regeneration, genetics, and toxicology due to their large and abundant eggs, as well as their versatile embryos, which can be readily manipulated and developed in vivo. Furthermore, amphibians have also proven to be of considerable benefit in human disease research due to their conserved cellular developmental and genomic organization. This review gives a brief introduction on the progress and limitations of these animal models in biology and human disease research, and discusses the potential and challenge of Microhyla fissipes as a new model organism.
Keywords: Amphibian; Model organism; Life Science; Biomedicine; Microhyla fissipes
INTRODUCTION
Because many critical pathways and gene functions that govern organism development and apoptosis are highly conserved in different species, studies on model organisms can provide insight into basic biological processes (Fields & Johnston, 2005). Almost everything we know about the fundamental properties of organisms - how they grow and develop, how they express their genetic information, and how they use and store energy - has come from studies on model organisms. Not surprisingly, such studies have made important contributions to our understanding of human health and disease. These simple animals traditionally include the nematode worm (Caenorhabditis elegans), fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), zebrafish (Danio rerio), African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis), western clawed frog (Xenopus tropicalis) and mouse (Mus musculus), each a representative of the diversity of life (Chitramuthu, 2013; Fields & Johnston, 2005; LaBonne & Zorn, 2015). Model organisms usually exhibit certain key characteristics, which contribute to their viability in research, including small size and tractability in the laboratory, short generation time, high fertility rates, easy growth, and amenability to experimental manipulation. As model organisms, amphibians play key roles in developmental biology, regeneration, genetics, toxicology, and immunology research. Xenopus, including X. laevis and X. tropicalis, are important model organisms, especially for investigating fundamental questions on developmental and cell biology, due to their large, abundant eggs, readily manipulated embryos, and conserved cellular developmental and genomic organization. In addition, as anuran amphibians possess various skin secretions for defense against external stimuli, they are an optimal model for understanding special immune structures and functions as...