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Fig. 2. Contact between neural plate and non-neural ectoderm induces RB sensory neurons. (A) Schematic of transplantation experiment. Intermediate neural plate tissue was transplanted into the ventral or ventrolateral non-neural ectoderm of same-stage embryos and allowed to develop until stages 14–28 (schematic of embryo described in Fig. 1; modified from Nieuwkoop and Faber, 1994). (B–I) In situ hybridization of embryos after transplantation of intermediate neural plate into non-neural ectoderm, lateral views, anterior to the left at 3.2× (B, D, F, H) or 6.6× (C, E, G, I). Endogenous gene expression is observed in all embryos dorsally (toward the top). (B, C) Several XHox11L2-positive RB sensory neurons were found surrounding the transplant site in a stage 26 embryo (arrows). The staining in these cells looks morphologically similar to the staining of endogenous RBs. (D, E) XN-tubulin-positive cells in a stage 27–28 embryo surround transplanted tissue. (F, G) XSox2 expression in the transplanted region indicating grafted tissue maintains its neural identity. (H, I) Xblimp1 positive cells were observed both at the region spanning the neural plate border (arrowhead) and at the site of the transplant (arrow). NP = neural plate; Epi = epidermal ectoderm. |
