Morphological Characterization of the Developing Greater Cane Rat (Thryonomys swinderianus) Brain

Developmental mode along the altricial-precocial spectrum is well known to be influenced by brain development and maturation. The greater cane rat (GCR) is an indigenous precocial African rodent with uncommon phenotypes and life traits. This study was therefore designed to characterize and describe distinctive external developmental features in the prenatal GCR brain across the entire gestational length using the emergence and differentiation of external features of the brain vesicles. Four gross morphometric brain parameters (weight, length, width, and height) were evaluated and expressed as mean ± SEM. Relationship between all brain morphometrics and gestation length were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and linear regression. Developmental milestones in the prenatal GCR were then compared with closely related precocial mammals. The earliest time point with gross observable features in the prenatal GCR brain was at gestation day (GD) 60. The period with the most remarkable gross developmental features was noted between GD80 and GD100. Some of these gross features include differentiation of the cerebellar plate into vermis and lateral lobes, emergence of the piriform lobes, mammillary bodies, colliculi bodies, cerebral peduncles, and primordial pons. By GD130, most gross topographic neural features were already established. Cerebellar lobation and patterning at GD130 were the last recognizable gross developmental features noticed in the prenatal GCR brain. This coincided with the time of first eye opening in the GCR fetus. The developmental pattern observed in the prenatal GCR brain is similar to those noted in precocial rodent like the guinea pig. However, the onset of these milestones was delayed, and their duration was relatively shorter in the GCR. This study provides a frame of baseline reference of morphological brain features in the GCR embryos and fetuses that will be useful for fetal age estimation, for home grown neurodevelopmental and eco-toxicological studies, as this rodent is being proposed as a research model.