Development 122, 231-241 (1996) 231 Printed in Great Britain © The Company of Biologists Limited 1996 DEV3253 The dorsal neural tube organizes the dermamyotome and induces axial myocytes in the avian embryo Martha S. Spence1, Joseph Yip2 and Carol A. Erickson1,* 1Section of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA 2Department of Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA *Author for correspondence (e-mail:
[email protected]) SUMMARY Somites, like all axial structures, display dorsoventral reported previously to induce sclerotome. Thus, we have polarity. The dorsal portion of the somite forms the der- demonstrated that in the context of the embryonic envi- mamyotome, which gives rise to the dermis and axial mus- ronment, a dorsalizing signal from the dorsal neural tube culature, whereas the ventromedial somite disperses to can compete with the diffusible ventralizing signal from the generate the sclerotome, which later comprises the notochord. vertebrae and intervertebral discs. Although the neural In contrast to dorsal neural tube, pieces of ventral neural tube and notochord are known to regulate some aspects of tube, dorsal ectoderm or neural crest cells, all of which this dorsoventral pattern, the precise tissues that initially have been postulated to control dermamyotome formation specify the dermamyotome, and later the myotome from it, or to induce myogenesis, either fail to do so or provoke only have been controversial. Indeed, dorsal and ventral neural minimal inductive responses in any of our assays. However, tube, notochord, ectoderm and neural crest cells have all complicating the issue, we find consistent with previous been proposed to influence dermamyotome formation or to studies that following ablation of the entire neural tube, regulate myocyte differentiation.