Relationship between natural variations in motoneuron number and body size in Xenopus laevis: A test for size matching

Abstract

During normal development, tadpoles of Xenopus laevis demonstrate large variations in body size that are carried through metamorphosis. This variation in size exists at the stages when lumbar lateral motor column (L-LMC) motoneurons are produced and when neuronal cell death in this neuron population occurs. Body size, hindlimb size, motoneuron number, and motoneuron size (i.e., neuron nuclear cross-sectional area) were measured in animals from three developmental stages: one prior to significant amounts of cell death, one at the peak rate of cell death, and one after cell death. The hypothesis that neuron population size is matched to peripheral size was tested by using the natural size variation found at each of these stages. The ranges of values for the measurements at the three stages were large. Significant correlations between body size and motoneuron number, as well as between motoneuron number and muscle fiber number, were present after cell death. Since these correlations emerged as cell death reduced neuron numbers, size matching may have occurred and cell death may have adjusted the L-LMC motoneuron population's size to variation in body size. In addition to the correlations between body size and motoneuron number at the end of cell death, neuron numbers before and after cell death were significantly correlated among groups of siblings. The possibility that the number of neurons after cell death was also influenced by differences in the number of L-LMC progenitors is discussed.