Space Experiments
Pleurodeles waltl has been studied in space on at least six missions. The first Iberian Ribbed Newts in space may have been in 1985 on board Bion 7. The ten newts shared their journey with two Rhesus Macaques and ten rats, in an otherwise crewless Soviet Cosmos satellite. In 1992, Bion 10 also carried the newts on board, as did Bion 11 in 1996.
P. waltl research was continued later in 1996 by French-led experiments on the Mir space station (Mir Cassiopée expedition), with follow-up studies in 1998 (Mir Pégase expedition) and 1999 (Mir Perseus expedition). Foton-M2 also carried the Iberian Ribbed Newt in 2005.
The newts were chosen because they are a good model organism for the study of microgravity. They are a good model organism because of the female's ability to retain live sperm in her cloaca for up to 5 months, allowing her to be inseminated on Earth, and later (in space) have fertilisation induced through hormonal stimulation. Another advantage to this species is that development is slow, so all the key stages of ontogenesis can be observed: from the oocyte to swimming tailbud embryos or larvae.
Studies looked at the newts' ability to regenerate (which was faster in space overall, and up to two times in early stages), as well as the stages of development and reproduction in space.
On the ground, studies of hypergravity (up to 3g) on P. waltl fertilisation have also been conducted, as well as on the fertility of the space-born newts once they arrived back on Earth (they were fertile, and without problems).
Other amphibian species to travel in space include the newt species Lissotriton vulgaris and Cynops pyrrhogaster, and frog species: African clawed frog, Japanese tree frog, and several frogs in the Rana genus: Rana pipiens, Rana calestiana and Rana temporaria.
Read more about this topic: Iberian Ribbed Newt
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