In Xenopus, the animal cap is very sensitive to BMP antagonists, which result in neuralization. In chick, however, only cells at the border of the neural plate can be neuralized by BMP inhibition. Here we compare the two systems. BMP antagonists can induce neural plate border markers in both ventral Xenopus epidermis and non-neural chick epiblast. However, BMP antagonism can only neuralize ectodermal cells when the BMP-inhibited cells form a continuous trail connecting them to the neural plate or its border, suggesting that homeogenetic neuralizing factors can only travel between BMP-inhibited cells. Xenopus animal cap explants contain cells fated to contribute to the neural plate border and even to the anterior neural plate, explaining why they are so easily neuralized by BMP-inhibition. Furthermore, chick explants isolated from embryonic epiblast behave like Xenopus animal caps and express border markers. We propose that the animal cap assay in Xenopus and explant assays in the chick are unsuitable for studying instructive signals in neural induction.

The elaboration of anterior–posterior (A–P) pattern is one of the earliest events during development and requires the precisely coordinated action of several players at the level of molecules, cells and tissues. In mammals, it is controlled by a specialized population of migratory extraembryonic epithelial cells, the anterior visceral endoderm (AVE). The AVE is a signalling centre that is responsible for several important patterning events during early development, including specifying the orientation of the A–P axis and the position of the heart with respect to the brain. AVE cells undergo a characteristic stereotypical migration which is crucial to their functions.

Around the time of gastrulation in higher vertebrate embryos, inductive interactions direct cells to form central nervous system (neural plate) or sensory placodes. Grafts of different tissues into the periphery of a chicken embryo elicit different responses: Hensen's node induces a neural plate whereas the head mesoderm induces placodes. How different are these processes? Transcriptome analysis in time course reveals that both processes start by induction of a common set of genes, which later diverge. These genes are remarkably similar to those induced by an extraembryonic tissue, the hypoblast, and are normally expressed in the pregastrulation stage epiblast. Explants of this epiblast grown in the absence of further signals develop as neural plate border derivatives and eventually express lens markers. We designate this state as "preborder"; its transcriptome resembles embryonic stem cells. Finally, using sequential transplantation experiments, we show that the node, head mesoderm, and hypoblast are interchangeable to begin any of these inductions while the final outcome depends on the tissue emitting the later signals.

Background: Amniote gastrulation is often described with respect to human, mouse and chick development by the presence of the primitive streak, a posterior-to-anterior midline morphological cell ingression feature that has come to define Amniote gastrulation. How this midline, ingression-based strategy of gastrulation evolved from the ancestral blastopore, a circumferential involution event in Anamniotes, is unknown. However, within the Amniote clade there exists a more diverse range of gastrulation strategies than just the primitive streak. Investigating gastrulation in a wider range of Amniotes provides a way to understand evolutionary transition from blastopore to the primitive streak. Results: We analysed early to late gastrulation stages of Chamaeleo calyptratus, showing their unique morphology through confocal imaging of F-actin and laminin-stained embryos to visualise cell morphology and assess basal lamina integrity. We analysed the expression pattern of core mesodermal markers Brachyury and Fgf8 and complimented this analysis with that of the turtle, Trachemys scripta. Conclusions: Our analysis suggests that reptile gastrulation is bi-modal; primary internalization occurs anteriorly by means of an incomplete blastopore-like opening, while posteriorly the cells undergo ingression in the Brachyury-expressing blastoporal plate. This strategy stands mid-way between Anamniotes and Avians/Mammals, suggesting that blastoporal plate is a precursor of the avian primitive streak.

The amniote organizer (Hensen's node) can induce a complete nervous system when grafted into a peripheral region of a host embryo. Although BMP inhibition has been implicated in neural induction, non-neural cells cannot respond to BMP antagonists unless previously exposed to a node graft for at least 5 hours before BMP inhibitors. To define signals and responses during the first 5 hours of node signals, a differential screen was conducted. Here we describe three early response genes: two of them, Asterix and Obelix, encode previously undescribed proteins of unknown function but Obelix appears to be a nuclear RNA-binding protein. The third is TrkC, a neurotrophin receptor. All three genes are induced by a node graft within 4–5 hours but they differ in the extent to which they are inducible by FGF: FGF is both necessary and sufficient to induce Asterix, sufficient but not necessary to induce Obelix and neither sufficient nor necessary for induction of TrkC. These genes are also not induced by retinoic acid, Noggin, Chordin, Dkk1, Cerberus, HGF/SF, Somatostatin or ionomycin-mediated Calcium entry. Comparison of the expression and regulation of these genes with other early neural markers reveals three distinct “epochs”, or temporal waves, of gene expression accompanying neural induction by a grafted organizer, which are mirrored by specific stages of normal neural plate development. The results are consistent with neural induction being a cascade of responses elicited by different signals, culminating in the formation of a patterned nervous system.

In the animal kingdom, gastrulation, the process by which the primary germ layers are formed involves a dramatic transformation in the topology of the cells that give rise to all of the tissues of the adult. Initially formed as a mono‐layer, this tissue, the epiblast, becomes subdivided through the internalization of cells, thereby forming a two (bi‐laminar) or three (tri‐laminar) layered embryo. This morphogenetic process coordinates the development of the fundamental body plan and the three‐body axes (antero‐posterior, dorso‐ventral, and left‐right) and begins a fundamental segregation of cells toward divergent developmental fates. In humans and other mammals, as well as in avians, gastrulating cells internalize along a structure, called the primitive streak, which builds from the periphery toward the center of the embryo. How these morphogenetic movements are orchestrated and evolved has been a question for developmental biologists for many years. Is the primitive streak a feature shared by the whole amniote clade? Insights from reptiles suggest that the primitive streak arose independently in mammals and avians, while the reptilian internalization site is a structure half‐way between an amphibian blastopore and a primitive streak. The molecular machinery driving primitive streak formation has been partially dissected using mainly the avian embryo, revealing a paramount role of the planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway in streak formation. How did the employment of this machinery evolve? The reptilian branch of the amniote clade might provide us with useful tools to investigate the evolution of the amniote internalization site up to the formation of the primitive streak. WIREs Dev Biol 2017, 6:e262. doi: 10.1002/wdev.262 This article is categorized under: Early Embryonic Development > Fertilization to Gastrulation Early Embryonic Development > Gastrulation and Neurulation Comparative Development and Evolution > Body Plan Evolution

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At gastrulation, a subpopulation of epiblast cells constitutes a transient posteriorly located structure called the primitive streak, where cells that undergo epithelial–mesenchymal transition make up the mesoderm and endoderm lineages. Mouse embryo epiblast cells were labelled ubiquitously or in a mosaic fashion. Cell shape, packing, organization and division were recorded through live imaging during primitive streak formation. Posterior epiblast displays a higher frequency of rosettes, some of which associate with a central cell undergoing mitosis. Cells at the primitive streak, in particular delaminating cells, undergo mitosis more frequently than other epiblast cells. In pseudostratified epithelia, mitosis takes place at the apical side of the epithelium. However, mitosis is not restricted to the apical side of the epiblast, particularly on its posterior side. Non‐apical mitosis occurs specifically in the streak even when ectopically located. Posterior non‐apical mitosis results in one or two daughter cells leaving the epiblast layer. Cell rearrangement associated with mitotic cell rounding in posterior epiblast, in particular when non‐apical, might thus facilitate cell ingression and transition to a mesenchymal phenotype.