Embryogenesis of the Uropygial Glands in the Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis (Rothschild, 1893): Procellariiformes)

Abstract

An avian uropygial gland is located on the mid-dorsum of the tail, and is the only external gland found in birds. Most studies have focused on the function, gross anatomy and chemical nature of this gland, with little research on its ontogeny. The purpose of this study was to examine the development of this gland in a series of Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) embryos. Specimens were examined anatomically and histologically. It was found that grooves preceded glandular development by many stages. The embryogenesis of the uropygial gland was divided into 6 phases: preinception, groove inception, mesodermal separation, migrating mesodermal cells, oval shaped "depressions", constriction and finally glandular inception. No other gland is known to develop similarly, though there may be parallels with femoral gland development. In comparison to other bird species, the length of the development period in the Albatross, as well as other compounding factors, make it difficult to determine the significance of these observations. The development of a mesodermal band, soon to be a connective tissue capsule, is more complex than originally described in ducks. Thus, the unique nature of this gland is established, but the significance of the observations required further studies into uropygial gland development. Anat Rec, 300:1420-1428, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The uropygial gland of the monk parakeet Myiopsitta monachus: Histology, morphogenesis, and evolution within Psittaciformes (Aves)

“…The time of onset of the morphogenesis of the UG is known for several species. For example, they appear at day eight in zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata , Passeriformes) and pigeons (Columbiformes), at day ten in chickens ( Gallus gallus , Galliformes), Japanese quail ( Coturnix coturnix , Galliformes), and Peking ducks ( Anas platyrhynchos , Anseriformes), at day 12 in budgerigars ( Melopsittacus undulatus , Psittaciformes), and at day 13 in Laysan albatross ( Phoebastria immutabilis , Procellariiformes; Bride & Gomot, ; Jacob & Ziswiler, and bibliography cited therein; Fukui, ; Fukui, ; Rehorek et al, ). However, only the characterization of the developmental stages of some of these species (i.e., Gallus gallus , Hamburger & Hamilton, ; Coturnix coturnix , Ainsworth, Stanley, & Evans, ; Phoebastria immutabilis , Rehorek, Smith, & Beeching, ) are available in the bibliography, including our species under study ( Myiopsitta monachus , Carril & Tambussi, ), and it is on these species that we base our comparisons.…”

“…Despite a plethora of studies about the size, morphology, histology, secretion, and function of the UG of several bird species (e.g., Chiale, Carril, Montalti, & Barbeito, ; Golüke & Caspers, ; Harem et al, ; Haribal, Dhondt, Rosane, & Rodriguez, ; Martín‐Vivaldi, Ruiz‐Rodríguez, Soler, Peralta‐Sánchez, & Méndez, ; Mohamed, ; Møller, Erritzøe, & Rózsa, ; Moreno‐Rueda, ; Moyer, Rock, & Clayton, ; Sadoon, ; Sawad, ; Soler, Peralta‐Sánchez, Martín‐Plateros, Martín‐Vivaldi, & Martínez‐Bueno, ), little is known about its morphogenesis. Contributions on this topic are restricted to a few old studies focused on chickens, quails and ducks (e.g., Bride & Gomot, ; Fukui, ; Fukui, ; Fukui, ; Wagner & Boord, ), and the recent article on the Laysan albatross Phoebastria immutabilis (Rehorek, Wu, Smith, & Beeching, ).…”

The uropygial gland of the Eared Dove and its evolutionary history within the Columbiformes (Aves)

“…Even though several studies have been performed on the uropygial gland of different bird species to determine its size, morphology, histology, morphogenesis, secretion and function (e.g. Lucas and Stettenheim 1972;Bride and Gomot 1978;Jacob and Ziswiler 1982;Johnston 1988;Fukui 1997;Montalti and Salibian 2000;Salibian and Montalti 2009;Chiale and Montalti 2013;Chiale et al 2014Chiale et al , 2015Chiale et al , 2016Rehorek et al 2017;Moreno-Rueda 2017), only a few of these studies have focussed on the Columbiformes. More recent studies describe very generally the histology of only four species of columbids, Columba palumbus, Streptopelia turtur, Drepanoptila holosericea and Ducula goliath (Jacob and Ziswiler 1982), the chemical composition of the uropygial gland secretion of the Rock Dove (Montalti et al 2001(Montalti et al , 2005, and the presence/absence of the uropygial gland in ca.…”