Overview

The Xenopus frog

Xenopus  are more commonly known as African Clawed Frogs. They are highly aquatic frogs native to Sub-Saharan Africa. There are 18 species in the Xenopus genus. Xenopus laevis is a member of this genus which is commonly studied as a model organism.

Model organisms

A model orgnism is a species that is used to study certain biological processes, with the hope that these discoveries can lead to an insight into the workings of the human body and human disease. Model organisms are used because human experimentation would be unfeasible or unethical.

This strategy is made possible by the common descent of all living organisms, and the conservation of metabolic and developmental pathways and genetic material over the course of evolution. Studying model organisms can be informative, but care must be taken when generalising from one organism to another.

The frog makes an excellent model organism for study of embryonic development because they are sufficiently large (1.2-1.4mm in diameter), therefore they are easy to manipulate. The embryos are extremly hard and are highly resistant to infection after microsurgery. They are also easy to keep and mate as they develop normally in tap water and can be fertilised in a dish.

Image courtesy of Flickr under creative commons liscence.