The first see-through frog created by breeding: description, inheritance patterns and dermal chromatophore structure

We have succeeded in creating see-through frogs from natural color mutants of the Japanese brown frog Rana japonica , which usually possesses an ochre or brown back; this coloration enables the organs, blood vessels and eggs to be observed through the skin without performing dissection. We crossed two kinds of recessive color mutant (black-eyed and gray-eyed) frogs through artificial insemination and F2 offspring produced frogs whose skin is translucent throughout the life cycle. Three kinds of dermal chromatophores—xanthophores, iridophores and melanophores—are observed in a layered arrangement in the skin of wild-type frogs, but few chromatophores were present in the skin of the see-through frogs. The translucent skin enables observation of organ growth and cancer formation and progression in the animal, which can be monitored over its entire life without the need for dissection. See-through frogs thus provide a useful animal model for environmental, medical and biological research.