Eineiige Zwillinge bei Triton ihre experimentelle Herstellung und ihre Regulation
Authors: Mangold Otto , Testa Italo 
Published: July 2016

Twins deriving from a single zygote were produced in Triton alpestris and Triton taeniatus by two different series of experiments. The first type of experiments proceeded, by means of a glass thread put on and cutting through the median plane of early gastrulae, to a division of these into two lateral (right and left) halves. These halves may give rise to normally formed identical twins (fig. 2), or to twins with more or less accentuated deficiencies on their inner sides (figg. 3 and 4). In extreme cases they may even produce left or right half-embryos, or much reduced malformations with very imperfect organ formation. Generally considered, the regolation in the head region is better than that in the tail one, and much better than in the trunk. Most of the heads show two eyes of equal size and normal position; in rare cases we encounter two eyes of different size, or synophthalmus or cyclopia. The «real» half-embryos have only one laterally situated eye (tab. 2). The normally formed identical twins deriving from half an egg each, develop into properly proportionned embryos of half the normal size; the resulting larvae reach the normal size of the equally-aged control larvae deriving from entire eggs, often before the stage of nourishment, (fig. 5, tab. 3).

In the second series of experiments, an early gastrula was cut through in correspondence to the median plane, and then the complete presumptive epidermis of another gastrula and, respectively, of a third one, was stuck on to the wound surfaces of the halves in normal orientation (fig. 6). The right and the left combinations resulting therefrom give rise, in the original median line, to long, narrow and apparently somewhat too great neural plates, the external half-portion of which was fournished by the host half-gastrula and is somewhat more strongly developped than the inner half-portion deriving from the presumptive epidermis (fig. 7 a, b). This epidermis that was stuck on to the gastrula-halves' surfaces, takes part in the formation of the embryos either totally or at least for its greatest part. No perfect larvae will be formed (tab. 4). The head is always bilaterally developped, but it is often asymmetric and shows synophthalmous or cyclopic character (figg. 8, 9, 10, tab. 5). The trunk is sometimes normal (fig. 8 a), but it may also show an axial system of too great length (fig. 8 b), or dorsal deficiencies—often in the form of either symmetrical or asymmetrical Spina bifida—with dorsal incurvation (fig. 9 a, b). The tail can be either normal, or crooked, or defective, or doubled. In the best cases we see, in the first series of experiments, the regolation of the half-organiser of the gastrula-half into an entire organiser of half the normal size, while, in the second series of experiments, the regolation can produce an approximately normally sized entire organiser, which however, in the anterior head region is lacking of its full indutcive capacity.

In both series of experiments the right hand member of the twins was observed to show inversion of the situs viscerum.