Solanine or a preparation of mixed glycoalkaloids from potatoes naturally infected with the late-blight fungus, Phytophthora infestans, was injected into fertile chicken eggs between 0 and 26 h of incubation, before formation of the neural tube. The embryos were examined after a total of 72 h of incubation. Various abnormalities were found, the most conspicuous being absence of the tail or trunk below the wing bud (rumplessness). A statistically significant proportion of the abnormal embryos showed malformations that seemed to be related to this condition; these included fluid- or blood-filled vesicles in the lower trunk or tail region on one or both sides of the neural tube. Such abnormalities were not observed in control embryos.
In studying early mortality in the turkey embryo, it became necessary to determine with considerable accuracy the extent of development of the embryo.
Phillipsand Williams (1944) described the Black and the Beltsville Small White turkey embryos after different durations of incubation. However, chronological age, Lc., incubation time, per sc, is not a reliable expression of the extent BREASTED BRONZE TURKEY EMBRYO." The Biological bulletin 119, 90-97.
The phenomenon of enlargement of the host chick embryo spleen, following grafts of homologous adult chicken tissues to the chorio-allantoic membrane (CAM), affords the investigator an excellent tool for the study of growth.
Initial observations of this phenomenon were made by Danchakoff (1916) and Murphy (1916). Grafts of adult chicken spleen on the chorio-allantoic membrane of 9-day-old chick embryos brought about a striking enlargement of the host spleens after 8 additional days of incubation. The phenomenon was later studied by Ebert (1951), who showed that the effect was only partially organ-specific. Grafts of thymus and liver affected the weight of the host spleen, but in each case the effect was far smaller than that observed with splenic transplants. Andres (1955) found that injected kidney and liver debris, which elicited an increased mitotic index in the homologous host organ, was not inhibited in its action by killing the cells through freezing and subsequent thawing.
The possibility of identifying embryonic antigens of unique function, of localizing their sites of origin and action, and of manipulating them experimentally in order to analyze their developmental significance by the use of specific toxic sera at lethal or sub-lethal doses was advanced by Nace (1955). By modifying the normal function of an antigen with sub-lethal doses of a toxic antiserum, a specific anomaly may be produced, affording a key to the localization and the time and nature of the action of the antigen. Similar arguments have been advanced by those who have sought to block the growth of tumors with specific antisera (reviewed by Ross, 1957;Wissler and Flax, 1957). However, before this approach can be employed critically in studying the synthesis of specific antigens and their role in development, the following questions must be considered : ( 1 ) Are the proteins and other macromolecules of the embryo antigenic ? Or does the embryo contain a population of molecules capable of reacting with antibody produced against adult antigens but incapable of eliciting antibody production? The distinction must be made between the occurrence in embryos of combining groups identical with those of adult antigens and the occurrence of embryonic antigens (Ebert, 1958a). ( 2) What are the effects of antisera on the embryo? Does the reaction between antigen and antibody, in vivo, result in measurable modifications of, or interference with, biological function? As a general rule, tissue-specific molecules exhibit species-specificity to some degree, making analysis by immunochemical techniques possible ; the principal advantage of these methods is their exquisite sensitivity, which makes possible the analysis of the rate of synthesis and accumulation and site of localization of proteins or other macromolecules present in embryos in trace amounts. The principal difficulty, one which is often not appreciated, is that antigenic specificity depends upon relatively small determinant groups rather than on the complete structure of the molecule, and that the molecule may contain more than one kind of determinant group. Little is known of the kind, number, and size of determinant groups of natural proteins. The antigenically active groups and physiologically active groups of a molecule may not be
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