Determination of hemoglobin expression patterns in erythroid cells of Rana catesbeiana tadpoles.

1. Rana catesbeiana (bullfrog) tadpoles are heterogeneous in the relative amounts of four major tadpole hemoglobins (Hbs), as well as in the relative amounts of two tadpole red blood cell types in the peripheral blood. 2. Previous work has shown that this heterogeneity is present at all stages of larval development and growth. 3. Although some tadpoles lack one of the Hbs in their peripheral blood (i.e. the electrophoretically slowest form, Td-4), the missing Hb can be found in the erythropoietic organ from which it emanates (the kidneys), indicating that the heterogeneity results from quantitative differences in gene expression. 4. We wished to know whether this in vivo regulation is subject to external environmental perturbation and report that tadpoles of known Hb phenotypes regenerate precisely the pre-anemia Hb profile during early as well as late stages of recovery from phenylhydrazine-induced anemia. 5. These and other results indicate that the in vivo mechanism for regulating the pattern of Hb expression has become firmly determined in the erythropoietic system by the earliest larval stage of development.