Abstract
The study aims to describe the development of the heart in Podocnemis expansa during the incubation period and immediately after hatching. A total of 108 embryonic hearts and five hearts from freshly hatched individuals (1st day post-hatching) were fixed and processed for light and ultrastructural microscopy analysis, respectively. The primitive heart was observed on the 5th day of incubation, featuring only a sinus venosus, an atrial chamber, and a ventricle containing small trabeculae, while atria were observed only from the 10th day onwards. On the 13th day, the ventricular cavity was visualized, differentiating into the venosum, arteriosum, and pulmonale cavums. The atrioventricular valve, pulmonary trunk, and aortic arches were formed on the 18th day. Additionally, the atria were transversely separated by the first atrial septum. On the 39th day, the separation of the cavum venosum from the cavum pulmonale by the horizontal septum and the separation of the cavum venosum from the cavum arteriosum by the vertical septum were observed. In the post-hatched specimens, the myocardium remained spongy, with close proximity to erythrocytes, also forming evident partial septa and exhibiting the presence of nervous tissue, indicative of subepicardial plexus formation. It is concluded that by the 25th day, the fundamental events in the formation of the heart of P. expansa, such as the bending of the cardiac tube, the formation of the first atrial septum, atrioventricular valve formation, and partial ventricular septa, had already been completed. After hatching, the internal cardiac structures already resembled those observed in adults.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the CNPq for the financial support (process number 447066/2014-5). Eletrobrás Amazonas GT supported the Center for the Preservation and Research of Mammals and Aquatic Chelonians—CPPMQA. Thanks are also due to the National Research Institute of Amazonia Thematic Laboratory of Optical and Electron Microscopy—LTMOE for support in the Scanning Electron Microscopy analyses.
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E. L. B. R.: Formal analysis (lead); investigation (equal); methodology (lead); writing - original draft (equal); writing - review and editing (equal). M. S. M.: Investigation (supporting); methodology (supporting); writing - original draft (supporting). L. I. Q. R.: Investigation (supporting); writing - original draft (supporting); V. L. A. G. and Z. J. S. Jr: methodology (supporting). L. B. M. and J. K. F. S. B.: writing - review and editing (supporting). M. F. O.: Conceptualization (equal); methodology (supporting); writing - review and editing (supporting). C. E. B. M.: Data curation (lead); funding acquisition (lead); resources (equal); conceptualization (lead); supervision (equal); validation (equal); writing - original draft (equal); writing - review and editing (supporting).
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Rocha, E.L.B., dos Santos Magalhães, M., Rocha, L.I.Q. et al. Developmental heart morphology in the Amazon turtle Podocnemis expansa (Testudines: Podocnemidae). Zoomorphology 142, 497–508 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-023-00616-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-023-00616-5