Long‐distance cue from emerging dermis stimulates neural crest melanoblast migration

Abstract

Neural crest melanoblasts display unique navigational abilities enabling them to colonize the dorsal path between ectoderm and somite. One signal shown here to elicit melanoblast migration is a chemotactic cue supplied by the emerging dermis. Until dermis emerges, melanoblasts fail to enter the dorsal path. The dermis emerges from a site that is too distant to stimulate migration by cell contact. Instead, surgeries show that dermis elicits migration from a distance. When dermis is grafted distally, neural crest cells enter the path precociously. Moreover, large grafts recruit melanoblasts from the control sides (without increasing crest cell numbers) as well as a few crest cells from ventral somite. Because other grafted tissues fail to stimulate migration, the dermis stimulus is specific. This report is the first documentation that trunk neural crest cells can be guided chemotactically. It also extends evidence that migration is exquisitely sensitive to temporal-spatial patterns of somite morphogenesis. Developmental Dynamics 229:99 -108, 2004.

Spatial relations between avian craniofacial neural crest and paraxial mesoderm cells

“…However, given the area occupied by the initial injection bolus, we cannot exclude the presence of a cryptic compartmentalization in head mesoderm comparable to that found in somites. The classic model of a rigid, tripartite compartmentalization of each somite has been replaced in recent years by a more dynamic model in which boundaries between lineages are constantly reorganizing (e.g., myogenic and fibroblastic, Burke and Nowicki, 2003; myogenic and dermoblastic, Tosney, 2004). Our injection data support the early delineation of chondrogenic and osteogenic precursors in a location that would be comparable to the sclerotomal part of a somite.…”

“…faces, such as the surface of the dermatome and internal serosal surfaces, but their later presence in epidermal as well as many internal organs indicates an ability to cross boundaries (Tosney, 2004).…”

Modular development of the teleost trunk along the dorsoventral axis and zic1/zic4 as selector genes in the dorsal module

“…Pigment cells, localized in the interface between dermis and epidermis, are known to be influenced by the dermis in their distribution (Tosney, 2004). For fins, the present study demonstrates that the underlying mesoderm regulates the position of their outgrowth, and thereafter fin development proceeds by cooperation of the epidermis, dermis and neural crest cells.…”

Versican V0 and V1 Guide Migratory Neural Crest Cells

“…Unexpectedly, however, neither the gene inactivation of semaphorin3A (19) nor of ephrin-B2 (20) and the corresponding Eph receptors on neural crest cells (21,22) resulted in the mutant mice in aberrant migration patterns through the somites. These observations suggested that a concerted action of multiple inhibitory and some attractive cues are required to guide trunk neural crest cells in vivo (1,17,23,24).Prime candidates for a cooperative partnership with the cell surface contact inhibitors of neural crest motility are extracellular matrix components belonging to the chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) and PNA-binding glycoproteins (10,11,25,26). Especially, the chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans versican (27) and aggrecan (28) appear to be functionally involved in the inhibition.…”