Premature death (p) mutation ofAmbystoma mexicanum affects the ability of ectoderm to respond to neural induction

✍ Scribed by Graveson, Ann C.; Armstrong, John B.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 714 KB
• Volume: 274
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-104X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-010x(19960301)274:4<248::aid-jez5>3.0.co;2-p

✦ Synopsis

The premature death (p) mutation of the axolotl prevents the differentiation of cartilage from cranial neural crest, and likely affects other subpopulations of the neural crest as well. The mutant is, therefore? a useful model for understanding the process of specification of the neural crest. To test whether the defect can be attributed to a failure of neural induction, dorsal lip implants were performed between pIp and wild-type embryos. Dorsal lips from mutant embryos were found to induce secondary neural structures as frequently as wild-type tissue, and the secondary neural folds developed cartilage in explant culture. Wild-type dorsal lips were also able to induce secondary neural structures in pIp recipients, but these secondary folds were unable to form cartilage in culture. We therefore conclude that the p gene affects the ability of the ectoderm to respond to the inductive signal(s) provided by the mesoderm.