Scientists in Japan created the first transparent frog by selectively breeding frogs with clear skin over multiple generations. Only about one in sixteen frogs produced from this breeding was fully transparent from tadpole to adult stages. The internal organs of these transparent frogs are visible through their skin without dissection, allowing researchers to observe organ growth and track how medicines and toxins affect metabolism. Transparent frogs could also be used to study disease progression and evaluate treatment effectiveness by injecting illuminating proteins to light up genes of interest. Researchers hope transparent frogs may replace dissection in classrooms and provide a humane alternative for scientific study.

1. A Transparent frog !!!

2. For a long time frogs are used by the men :  Man can cook frog legs : in England, some people consider french as frog’s eaters.

3.  Man sometimes prefers eating alive frogs in Asia.

4. Amazonian toxic frog  Since ancient times, amazonian indians have known the effect the poisons of some frogs and used them for hunting, wars with enemy tribes and in the defense from European invaders.

5. The frog is also a meteorologist : Some legends say that a frog climbing a ladder in its bowl announces the arrival of the rain.

6.  In Japan today, the frog isn’t a food, a poison or a meteorologist but a serious subject of study to scientists.

7. In the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 2007, professor Masayuki Sumi said his team had created the first transparent four-legged creature. It’s a type of transparent frog whose internal organs are visible through its skin.

8. Why ? The scientist already observed in the nature some transparent animals. I show you three typical exemples:

9. Found in Central America, from Mexico to Panama, there is the glasswing butterfly.

10. There is also this strange transparent amphibod called Phronima found on an expedition in the North Atlantic.

11. The transparent icefish was found in the cold waters around Antartica.

12. How ? Researchers, observing mutant brown japan frogs with very clear skin, had the idea to get them breed with each other, to selection over next generations the one who stay transparent from tadpole stage to adult stage.

13. But the process is imperfect because just one frog in sixteen is transparent and the transparent frog’s eggs do not develop correctly. Transparent character doesn’t old in position in several generations.

14. Interest ? It is possible to see the organs of the same frog throughout its life without disecting it, because disecting animals for science has sparked controversy worldwide. Aside from these ethical problems, science interest is :

15. Observing in live organs growing up. This transparent frog could be a model to study how certain medicine, or toxical products act on metabolism. Other application: observation through the frog’s skin evolution of diseases and evaluation about medicines used to cure them.

16. Researchers could also inject into the transparent frogs an illuminating protein attached to a gene, wich would light up the gene once its manifest ( for example, showing at what stage cancer starts ). Computer simulation for small animals already exist. Japanese reaserchers hope their transparent frogs may be used to be observed instead of be used for disection in classrooms for example.

17. The usage of the transparent frog by the researchers is easy and quite cheap. These frogs are about to be sold in Japan to laboratories and schools but also as pets to families. A transparent frog is worth 10 000 yens wich is 75 euros.