Variations in the presence of chloride cells in the gills of lampreys (Petromyzontiformes) and their evolutionary implications |
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| Authors: | H Bartels M F Docker M Krappe M M White C Wrede I C Potter |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Institut für Funktionelle und Angewandte Anatomie, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, 30625 Hannover, Germany;2. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada;3. Gesellschaft für Naturschutz und Landschafts?kologie (GNL) e.V., 17237 Kratzeburg, Germany;4. Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, U.S.A.;5. Centre for Fish and Fisheries Research, School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch 6150, WA, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Although confined to fresh water, non‐parasitic species of lampreys and the landlocked parasitic sea lamprey, all of which were derived relatively recently from anadromous ancestors, still develop chloride cells, whose function in their ancestors was for osmoregulation in marine waters during the adult parasitic phase. In contrast, such cells are not developed by the non‐parasitic least brook lamprey Lampetra aepyptera, which has been separated from its ancestor for >2 million years, nor by the freshwater parasitic species of the genus Ichthyomyzon. The length of time that a non‐parasitic species or landlocked parasitic form or species has spent in fresh water is thus considered the overriding factor determining whether chloride cells are developed by those lampreys. |
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| Keywords: | anadromous migration evolution non‐parasitic lampreys osmoregulation paired species |
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