Proliferation, Migration, and Survival of Cells in the Telencephalon of the Ball Python, Python Regius

Bales, Thomas B

doi:10.15368/theses.2014.130

Cited by 2 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 265 publications

(441 reference statements)

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“…The cerebral hemispheres of snakes are composed of different structures (e.g. cortex, nucleus sphericus, anterior ventricular ridge, amygdala), each being considered as a link between the sources of sensory information and the brain structures that control and modulate the behavior (Halpern, ; Bales, ). Different studies about the lizard brain have shown that the medial dorsal cortices are relatively bigger in active foragers (Day et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In snakes, the MOB is responsible for capturing smells at the level of the olfactory epithelium, and transmitting them to the olfactory bulb; the AOB is responsible for pheromone processing related to chemical social communication and prey capture (Bales, ). The MOB projects mainly to the lateral cortex and the AOB mainly to the nucleus sphericus (Lanuza & Halpern, ), two structures localized in the cerebral hemispheres.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The MOB projects mainly to the lateral cortex and the AOB mainly to the nucleus sphericus (Lanuza & Halpern, ), two structures localized in the cerebral hemispheres. The MOB and AOB are involved in different behavioral activities, such as predation, mating and courtship (Bales, ). It is difficult to clearly identify the two structures and their limits from the brain endocast.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, morphological differences are perceived between the sampled taxa and they may imply differences in their sensory abilities. All snakes have a very developed vomeronasal system (Kubie & Halpern, 1979;Bales, 2014); however, in hydrophiinae sea snakes the MOBs are considered to be functionless and it seems that they use the AOB for smelling underwater (Schwenk, 2008;Shichida et al 2013). Brain endocasts of hydrophiidae are indeed the only ones to show olfactory bulbs with a width increasing along the antero-posterior axis (e.g.…”

Section: Sensory Inferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparative morphology of snake (Squamata) endocasts: evidence of phylogenetic and ecological signals

et al. 2017

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Brain endocasts obtained from computed tomography (CT) are now widely used in the field of comparative neuroanatomy. They provide an overview of the morphology of the brain and associated tissues located in the cranial cavity. Through anatomical comparisons between species, insights on the senses, the behavior, and the lifestyle can be gained. Although there are many studies dealing with mammal and bird endocasts, those performed on the brain endocasts of squamates are comparatively rare, thus limiting our understanding of their morphological variability and interpretations. Here, we provide the first comparative study of snake brain endocasts in order to bring new information about the morphology of these structures. Additionally, we test if the snake brain endocast encompasses a phylogenetic and/or an ecological signal. For this purpose, the digital endocasts of 45 snake specimens, including a wide diversity in terms of phylogeny and ecology, were digitized using CT, and compared both qualitatively and quantitatively. Snake endocasts exhibit a great variability. The different methods performed from descriptive characters, linear measurements and the outline curves provided complementary information. All these methods have shown that the shape of the snake brain endocast contains, as in mammals and birds, a phylogenetic signal but also an ecological one. Although phylogenetically related taxa share several similarities between each other, the brain endocast morphology reflects some notable ecological trends: e.g. (i) fossorial species possess both reduced optic tectum and pituitary gland; (ii) both fossorial and marine species have cerebral hemispheres poorly developed laterally; (iii) cerebral hemispheres and optic tectum are more developed in arboreal and terrestrial species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sensory Inferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparative morphology of snake (Squamata) endocasts: evidence of phylogenetic and ecological signals

et al. 2017

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“…The retrobulbar region, which has also been called the rostral forebrain, or anterior olfactory nucleus in lizards, is directly linked to the olfactory bulb (Halpern, 1980). This area shows high rates of neurogenesis in lizards (Delgado-González et al, 2008;Shao et al, 2012) and snakes (Bales, 2014), and is one of the most significant regions for neurogenesis in reptiles studied so far (Font et al, 2001). New cells may proliferate to migrate toward the olfactory bulbs for future processing, a mechanism resembling the rostral migratory stream (RMS) in mammals (Font et al, 2001;Lois and Alvarez-Buylla, 1994;Pérez-Cañellas and García-Verdugo, 1996).…”

Section: New Cell Density By Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food consumption increases cell proliferation in the python brain

Habroun

Schaffner

Taylor

et al. 2018

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Pythons are model organisms for investigating physiological responses to food intake. While systemic growth in response to food consumption is well documented, what occurs in the brain is currently unexplored. In this study, male ball pythons () were used to test the hypothesis that food consumption stimulates cell proliferation in the brain. We used 5-bromo-12'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) as a cell-birth marker to quantify and compare cell proliferation in the brain of fasted snakes and those at 2 and 6 days after a meal. Throughout the telencephalon, cell proliferation was significantly increased in the 6 day group, with no difference between the 2 day group and controls. Systemic postprandial plasticity occurs quickly after a meal is ingested, during the period of active digestion; however, the brain displays a surge of cell proliferation after most digestion and absorption is complete.

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Proliferation, Migration, and Survival of Cells in the Telencephalon of the Ball Python, Python Regius

Cited by 2 publications

References 265 publications

Comparative morphology of snake (Squamata) endocasts: evidence of phylogenetic and ecological signals

Comparative morphology of snake (Squamata) endocasts: evidence of phylogenetic and ecological signals

Food consumption increases cell proliferation in the python brain

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