Tissue interactions involving cranial neural crest in cartilage formation in Xenopus laevis (Daudin)

Abstract

Deletion experiments in neurula stage embryos of Xenopus laevis provide an approximate anuran fate map of the chondrogenic cranial neural crest which is similar to maps produced for other vertebrates. Crest cells in the transverse (rostral) neural fold do not contribute to the skeleton; other cranial crest cells contribute to the larval cranial and visceral skeletons in a rostral to caudal sequence. Grafting experiments show that contact with stomodeal (pharyngeal) endoderm is necessary to elicit chondrogenesis in cranial neural crest. Crest cells in the transverse neural fold, which do not normally form cartilage, formed cartilage in grafts, indicating that they do have the potential to form cartilage.