Spatial and temporal distribution of vinculin and talin in migrating avian neural crest cells and their derivatives

Development ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 108 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-433
Author(s):  
J.L. Duband ◽  
J.P. Thiery

Neural crest cells express different adhesion modes at each phase of their development starting with their separation from the neural tube, followed by migration along definite pathways throughout the embryo, and finally to settlement and differentiation in elected embryonic regions. In order to determine possible changes in the cytoskeleton organization and function during these processes, we have studied the in situ distribution of two major cytoskeleton-associated elements involved in the membrane anchorage of actin microfilaments, i.e. vinculin and talin, during the ontogeny of the neural crest and its derivatives in the avian embryo. Prior to emigration, neural crest cells exhibited both vinculin and talin at levels similar to the neighbouring neural epithelial cells, and this expression apparently did not change as cells became endowed with migratory properties. However, vinculin became selectively enhanced in neural crest cells as they further migrated towards their final destination. This increase in vinculin amount was particularly striking in vagal and truncal neural crest cells entering cellular environments, such as the sclerotome and the gut mesenchyme. Talin was also expressed by neural crest cells but, in contrast to vinculin, staining was not conspicuous compared to neighbouring mesenchymal cells. High levels of vinculin persisted throughout embryogenesis in almost all neural derivatives of the neural crest, including the autonomous and sensory ganglia and Schwann cells along the peripheral nerves. In contrast, the non-neural derivatives of the neural crest rapidly lost their prominent vinculin staining after migration. The pattern of talin in the progeny of the neural crest was complex and varied with the cell types: for example, some cranial sensory ganglia expressed high amounts of the molecule whereas autonomic ganglia were nearly devoid of it. Our results suggest that (i) vinculin and talin may follow independent regulatory patterns within the same cell population, (ii) the level of expression of vinculin and talin in neural crest cells may be consistent with the rapid, constant modulations of their adhesive properties, and (iii) the expression patterns of the two molecules may also be correlated with the genesis of the peripheral nervous system.

Development ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 112 (4) ◽  
pp. 913-920 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.E. Fraser ◽  
M. Bronner-Fraser

Trunk neural crest cells migrate extensively and give rise to diverse cell types, including cells of the sensory and autonomic nervous systems. Previously, we demonstrated that many premigratory trunk neural crest cells give rise to descendants with distinct phenotypes in multiple neural crest derivatives. The results are consistent with the idea that neural crest cells are multipotent prior to their emigration from the neural tube and become restricted in phenotype after leaving the neural tube either during their migration or at their sites of localization. Here, we test the developmental potential of migrating trunk neural crest cells by microinjecting a vital dye, lysinated rhodamine dextran (LRD), into individual cells as they migrate through the somite. By two days after injection, the LRD-labelled clones contained from 2 to 67 cells, which were distributed unilaterally in all embryos. Most clones were confined to a single segment, though a few contributed to sympathetic ganglia over two segments. A majority of the clones gave rise to cells in multiple neural crest derivatives. Individual migrating neural crest cells gave rise to both sensory and sympathetic neurons (neurofilament-positive), as well as cells with the morphological characteristics of Schwann cells, and other non-neuronal cells (both neurofilament-negative). Even those clones contributing to only one neural crest derivative often contained both neurofilament-positive and neurofilament-negative cells. Our data demonstrate that migrating trunk neural crest cells can be multipotent, giving rise to cells in multiple neural crest derivatives, and contributing to both neuronal and non-neuronal elements within a given derivative.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Development ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 109 (4) ◽  
pp. 925-934 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.C. Smith-Thomas ◽  
A.R. Johnson ◽  
J.W. Fawcett

Amongst the many cell types that differentiate from migratory neural crest cells are the Schwann cells of the peripheral nervous system. While it has been demonstrated that Schwann cells will not fully differentiate unless in contact with neurons, the factors that cause neural crest cells to enter the differentiative pathway that leads to Schwann cells are unknown. In a previous paper (Development 105: 251, 1989), we have demonstrated that a proportion of morphologically undifferentiated neural crest cells express the Schwann cell markers 217c and NGF receptor, and later, as they acquire the bipolar morphology typical of Schwann cells in culture, express S-100 and laminin. In the present study, we have grown axons from embryonic retina on neural crest cultures to see whether this has an effect on the differentiation of neural crest cells into Schwann cells. After 4 to 6 days of co-culture, many more cells had acquired bipolar morphology and S-100 staining than in controls with no retinal explant, and most of these cells were within 200 microns of an axon, though not necessarily in contact with axons. However, the number of cells expressing the earliest Schwann cell markers 217c and NGF receptor was not affected by the presence of axons. We conclude that axons produce a factor, which is probably diffusible, and which makes immature Schwann cells differentiate. The factor does not, however, influence the entry of neural crest cells into the earliest stages of the Schwann cell differentiative pathway.


Development ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 505-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.J. Conway ◽  
D.J. Henderson ◽  
A.J. Copp

Neural crest cells originating in the occipital region of the avian embryo are known to play a vital role in formation of the septum of the cardiac outflow tract and to contribute cells to the aortic arches, thymus, thyroid and parathyroids. This ‘cardiac’ neural crest sub-population is assumed to exist in mammals, but without direct evidence. In this paper we demonstrate, using RT-PCR and in situ hybridisation, that Pax3 expression can serve as a marker of cardiac neural crest cells in the mouse embryo. Cells of this lineage were traced from the occipital neural tube, via branchial arches 3, 4 and 6, into the aortic sac and aorto-pulmonary outflow tract. Confirmation that these Pax3-positive cells are indeed cardiac neural crest is provided by experiments in which hearts were deprived of a source of colonising neural crest, by organ culture in vitro, with consequent lack of up-regulation of Pax3. Occipital neural crest cell outgrowths in vitro were also shown to express Pax3. Mutation of Pax3, as occurs in the splotch (Sp2H) mouse, results in development of conotruncal heart defects including persistent truncus arteriosus. Homozygotes also exhibit defects of the aortic arches, thymus, thyroid and parathyroids. Pax3-positive neural crest cells were found to emigrate from the occipital neural tube of Sp2H/Sp2H embryos in a relatively normal fashion, but there was a marked deficiency or absence of neural crest cells traversing branchial arches 3, 4 and 6, and entering the cardiac outflow tract. This decreased expression of Pax3 in Sp2H/Sp2H embryos was not due to down-regulation of Pax3 in neural crest cells, as use of independent neural crest markers, Hoxa-3, CrabpI, Prx1, Prx2 and c-met also revealed a deficiency of migrating cardiac neural crest cells in homozygous embryos. This work demonstrates the essential role of the cardiac neural crest in formation of the heart and great vessels in the mouse and, furthermore, shows that Pax3 function is required for the cardiac neural crest to complete its migration to the developing heart.


Development ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.F. Couly ◽  
P.M. Coltey ◽  
N.M. Le Douarin

The developmental fate of the cephalic paraxial and prechordal mesoderm at the late neurula stage (3-somite) in the avian embryo has been investigated by using the isotopic, isochronic substitution technique between quail and chick embryos. The territories involved in the operation were especially tiny and the size of the transplants was of about 150 by 50 to 60 microns. At that stage, the neural crest cells have not yet started migrating and the fate of mesodermal cells exclusively was under scrutiny. The prechordal mesoderm was found to give rise to the following ocular muscles: musculus rectus ventralis and medialis and musculus oblicus ventralis. The paraxial mesoderm was separated in two longitudinal bands: one median, lying upon the cephalic vesicles (median paraxial mesoderm—MPM); one lateral, lying upon the foregut (lateral paraxial mesoderm—LPM). The former yields the three other ocular muscles, contributes to mesencephalic meninges and has essentially skeletogenic potencies. It contributes to the corpus sphenoid bone, the orbitosphenoid bone and the otic capsules; the rest of the facial skeleton is of neural crest origin. At 3-somite stage, MPM is represented by a few cells only. The LPM is more abundant at that stage and has essentially myogenic potencies with also some contribution to connective tissue. However, most of the connective cells associated with the facial and hypobranchial muscles are of neural crest origin. The more important result of this work was to show that the cephalic mesoderm does not form dermis. This function is taken over by neural crest cells, which form both the skeleton and dermis of the face. If one draws a parallel between the so-called “somitomeres” of the head and the trunk somites, it appears that skeletogenic potencies are reduced in the former, which in contrast have kept their myogenic capacities, whilst the formation of skeleton and dermis has been essentially taken over by the neural crest in the course of evolution of the vertebrate head.


Development ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 112 (1) ◽  
pp. 301-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Baroffio ◽  
E. Dupin ◽  
N.M. Le Douarin

The cephalic neural crest (NC) of vertebrate embryos yields a variety of cell types belonging to the neuronal, glial, melanocytic and mesectodermal lineages. Using clonal cultures of quail migrating cephalic NC cells, we demonstrated that neurons and glial cells of the peripheral nervous system can originate from the same progenitors as cartilage, one of the mesectodermal derivatives of the NC. Moreover, we obtained evidence that the migrating cephalic NC contains a few highly multipotent precursors that are common to neurons, glia, cartilage and pigment cells and which we interprete as representative of a stem cell population. In contrast, other NC cells, although provided with identical culture conditions, give rise to clones composed of only one or some of these cell types. These cells thus appear restricted in their developmental potentialities compared to multipotent cells. It is therefore proposed that, in vivo, the active proliferation of pluripotent NC cells during the migration process generates distinct subpopulations of cells that become progressively committed to different developmental fates.


Development ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 127 (17) ◽  
pp. 3815-3828 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.T. Miller ◽  
T.F. Schilling ◽  
K. Lee ◽  
J. Parker ◽  
C.B. Kimmel

Mutation of sucker (suc) disrupts development of the lower jaw and other ventral cartilages in pharyngeal segments of the zebrafish head. Our sequencing, cosegregation and rescue results indicate that suc encodes an Endothelin-1 (Et-1). Like mouse and chick Et-1, suc/et-1 is expressed in a central core of arch paraxial mesoderm and in arch epithelia, both surface ectoderm and pharyngeal endoderm, but not in skeletogenic neural crest. Long before chondrogenesis, suc/et-1 mutant embryos have severe defects in ventral arch neural crest expression of dHAND, dlx2, msxE, gsc, dlx3 and EphA3 in the anterior arches. Dorsal expression patterns are unaffected. Later in development, suc/et-1 mutant embryos display defects in mesodermal and endodermal tissues of the pharynx. Ventral premyogenic condensations fail to express myoD, which correlates with a ventral muscle defect. Further, expression of shh in endoderm of the first pharyngeal pouch fails to extend as far laterally as in wild types. We use mosaic analyses to show that suc/et-1 functions nonautonomously in neural crest cells, and is thus required in the environment of postmigratory neural crest cells to specify ventral arch fates. Our mosaic analyses further show that suc/et-1 nonautonomously functions in mesendoderm for ventral arch muscle formation. Collectively our results support a model for dorsoventral patterning of the gnathostome pharyngeal arches in which Et-1 in the environment of the postmigratory cranial neural crest specifies the lower jaw and other ventral arch fates.


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
András Szabó ◽  
Roberto Mayor

Neural crest cells are a transient embryonic cell population that migrate collectively to various locations throughout the embryo to contribute a number of cell types to several organs. After induction, the neural crest delaminates and undergoes an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition before migrating through intricate yet characteristic paths. The neural crest exhibits a variety of migratory behaviors ranging from sheet-like mass migration in the cephalic regions to chain migration in the trunk. During their journey, neural crest cells rely on a range of signals both from their environment and within the migrating population for navigating through the embryo as a collective. Here we review these interactions and mechanisms, including chemotactic cues of neural crest cells’ migration.


2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 3004-3014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew L. Bilodeau ◽  
Theresa Boulineau ◽  
Ronald L. Hullinger ◽  
Ourania M. Andrisani

ABSTRACT Cells of the vertebrate neural crest (crest cells) are an invaluable model system to address cell fate specification. Crest cells are amenable to tissue culture, and they differentiate to a variety of neuronal and nonneuronal cell types. Earlier studies have determined that bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP-2, -4, and -7) and agents that elevate intracellular cyclic AMP (cAMP) stimulate the development of the sympathoadrenal (SA, adrenergic) lineage in neural crest cultures. To investigate whether interactive mechanisms between signaling pathways influence crest cell differentiation, we characterized the combinatorial effects of BMP-2 and cAMP-elevating agents on the development of quail trunk neural crest cells in primary culture. We report that the cAMP signaling pathway modulates both positive and negative signals influencing the development of SA cells. Specifically, we show that moderate activation of cAMP signaling promotes, in synergy with BMP-2, SA cell development and the expression of the SA lineage-determining gene Phox2a. By contrast, robust activation of cAMP signaling opposes, even in the presence of BMP-2, SA cell development and the expression of the SA lineage-determining ASH-1 and Phox2 genes. We conclude that cAMP signaling acts as a bimodal regulator of SA cell development in neural crest cultures.


Development ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 126 (8) ◽  
pp. 1715-1728 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.E. Perez ◽  
S. Rebelo ◽  
D.J. Anderson

The generation of sensory and autonomic neurons from the neural crest requires the functions of two classes of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors, the Neurogenins (NGNs) and MASH-1, respectively (Fode, C., Gradwohl, G., Morin, X., Dierich, A., LeMeur, M., Goridis, C. and Guillemot, F. (1998) Neuron 20, 483–494; Guillemot, F., Lo, L.-C., Johnson, J. E., Auerbach, A., Anderson, D. J. and Joyner, A. L. (1993) Cell 75, 463–476; Ma, Q., Chen, Z. F., Barrantes, I. B., de la Pompa, J. L. and Anderson, D. J. (1998 Neuron 20, 469–482). We have cloned two chick NGNs and found that they are expressed in a subset of neural crest cells early in their migration. Ectopic expression of the NGNs in vivo biases migrating neural crest cells to localize in the sensory ganglia, and induces the expression of sensory neuron-appropriate markers in non-sensory crest derivatives. Surprisingly, the NGNs can also induce the expression of multiple pan-neuronal and sensory-specific markers in the dermomyotome, a mesodermal derivative. Taken together, these data suggest that a subset of neural crest cells may already be specified for a sensory neuron fate early in migration, as a consequence of NGN expression.


1996 ◽  
Vol 93 (18) ◽  
pp. 9645-9650 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Nataf ◽  
L. Lecoin ◽  
A. Eichmann ◽  
N. M. Le Douarin

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