Xenopus

Common card · No. 355240

Xenopus () (from Greek ξενος, xenos 'strange' + πους, pous 'foot', commonly known as the clawed frog) is a genus of highly aquatic frogs native to sub-Saharan Africa. Twenty species are currently described within it. The two best-known species of this genus are Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis, which are commonly studied as model organisms for developmental biology, cell biology, toxicology, neuroscience and for modelling human disease and birth defects. The genus is also known for its allopolyploidy, with some species having up to 12 sets of chromosomes (all except for X. tropicalis have undergone diploidization; the highest is 2n = 12x = 108).

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