ONTOGENESIS OF MURINE NEURAL CREST DERIVATIVES

Abstract

The neural crest is an epithelial domain within the neural and non-neural ectoderm. This domain is generated along the anterior-posterior axis-giving rise to many different cell types. The key difference between cranial and trunk neural crest is the ability of cranial neural crest to give rise to mesectoderm. However the origin of mesectoderm has not been unequivocally proven. Furthermore the issue of whether neural crest cells are pluripotent or fate restricted has also been controversial. In the current study we try to address the issue of whether cell fate and origin are linked in the neural crest and propose that there are two populations of delaminating cells with distinct cell fates.