![]() ![]() Our group investigates these early molecular events in order to understand how these processes occur. The conditions leading to this epithelial activity were investigated by inducing bottle cells ectopically in the animal region with VegT or different members of the transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta. We are interested in how this process occurs, and if there are differences between cell-autonomous and non cell-autonomous neural inducers with respect to their downstream targets. The appearance of bottle cells at the dorsal vegetal/marginal boundary of Xenopus embryos marks the onset of blastopore formation. Here, we describe a simple yet efficient protocol to perform these grafts using the anuran Xenopus laevis. The dorsal blastopore lip is now called the Spemann-Mangold organizer. It has been demonstrated that in fact inhibition of BMP signals is sufficient to induce tissue with anterior telencephalic neural character. This meant that the dorsal blastopore lip was able to organize an almost complete embryo out of ventral tissue. Inhibitory signals from the dorsal blastopore lip (the Organizer) of the Xenopus embryo at gastrula stages will induce neural tissue. Before neural tissue is induced in the embryo, signals are required to inhibit the ectoderm from becoming epidermis so that it will become neural. ![]() The development of the nervous system is a complex process, of which the underlying mechanisms are slowly beginning to be elucidated. We investigate how the ectoderm is induced and what it gives rise to, in particular how neural tissue is specified. We are interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms of ectodermal specification in Xenopus leaves. Although previous studies 14,15 have suggested that the dorsal blastopore lip of amphioxus may be homologous to the vertebrate organizer, there was no direct evidence demonstrating that it is able. ![]()
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