Pigment patterns in neural crest chimeras constructed from quail and guinea fowl embryos
Autor: | Amata Hornbruch, Michael K. Richardson, Lewis Wolpert |
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Rok vydání: | 1991 |
Předmět: |
animal structures
Coturnix Biology Birds Chimera (genetics) Melanocyte differentiation biology.animal Animals Wings Animal Molecular Biology Chimera Pigmentation food and beverages Neural crest Cell Differentiation Cell Biology Anatomy Feathers biology.organism_classification Quail Cell biology Transplantation Neural Crest Plumage Feather visual_art embryonic structures visual_art.visual_art_medium Melanocytes Developmental Biology |
Zdroj: | Developmental Biology. 143:309-319 |
ISSN: | 0012-1606 |
Popis: | The pattern of pigmentation in bird embryos is determined by the spatial organization of melanocyte differentiation. Some of the results from recent, neural crest transplantation experiments support a model based on a prepattern in the feathers; others could be interpreted in terms of a nonspecific pattern resulting from a failure of the crest cells to read the positional values in another species. To distinguish between these possibilities, the crucial test is to construct chimeras from two species with different pigment patterns. We have examined the wing plumage of quail and guinea fowl embryos. The quail has a characteristic pattern of pigmented and unpigmented feather papillae, whereas the guinea fowl shows uniform pigmentation. Chimeras were constructed by grafting wing buds isotopically between embryos. The wing buds were transplanted before they had become invaded by neural crest cells. Quail wing buds grafted to the guinea fowl developed, in most cases, a pigment pattern resembling that of the quail and not that of the guinea fowl. A few cases became uniformly pigmented and appeared to represent nonspecific patterns. The reciprocal grafts (guinea fowl wing buds grafted to the quail) became pigmented all over. We found evidence that the timing of melanocyte differentiation is controlled by cues in the feather papillae. Some cases developed a severe inflammatory response. The model which best accounts for these findings--and which can account for inconsistencies in previous reports--is the following. A prepattern is present in the feathers and this can control the differentiation of melanoblasts, even if they come from a different species. The local cues which constitute the prepattern are not positional values. In some chimeras melanoblasts fail to respond to the prepattern and so a nonspecific pattern of uniform pigmentation is produced. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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