Chapter category: Development
Neural Crest Cell Plasticity: Size Matters
Neural Crest Induction
and Differentiation
Edited by: Jean-Pierre Saint-JeannetISBN: 0-387-35136-1
» Get more information about this book at landesbioscience.com «
Chapter authors:
Lisa L. Sandell and Paul A. Trainor
Patterning and morphogenesis of neural crest-derived tissues within a developing vertebrate embryo rely on a complex balance between signals acquired by neural crest cells in the neuroepithelium during their formation and signals from the tissues that the neural crest cells contact during their migration. Axial identity of hindbrain neural crest is controlled by a combinatorial pattern of Hox gene expression. Cellular interactions that pattern neural crest involve signals from the same key molecular families that regulate other aspects of patterning and morphogenesis within a developing embryo, namely the BMP, SHH and FGF pathways. The developmental program that regulates neural crest cell fate is both plastic and fixed. As a cohort of interacting cells, neural crest cells carry information that directs the axial pattern and species-specific morphology of the head and face. As individual cells, neural crest cells are responsive to signals from each other as well as from non-neural crest tissues in the environment. General rules and fundamental mechanisms have been important for the conservation of basic patterning of neural crest, but exceptions are notable and relevant. The key to furthering our understanding of important processes such as craniofacial development will require a better characterization of the molecular determinants of the endoderm, ectoderm and mesoderm and the effects that these molecules have on neural crest cell development.
Additional chapters from this book:
Neural Crest Cells and the Community of Plan for Craniofacial Development: Historical Debates and Current Perspectives
Drew M. Noden and Richard A. Schneider
After their initial discovery in the mid 1800s, neural crest cells transitioned from the category of renegade intra-embryonic wanderers to achieve rebel status, provoked espe- cially by the outra...
The Contribution of the Neural Crest to the Vertebrate Body
Elisabeth Dupin, Sophie Creuzet and Nicole M. Le Douarin
As a transitory structure providing adult tissues of the vertebrates with very diverse cell types, the neural crest (NC) has attracted for long the interest of developmental biologists and i...
Neural Crest and the Development of the Enteric Nervous System
R.B. Anderson, D.F. Newgreen and H.M. Young
The formation of the enteric nervous system (ENS) is a particularly interesting example of the migratory ability of the neural crest, and of the complexity of structures to which neural crest cells ...
Molecular Bases of Human Neurocristopathies
Heather C. Etchevers,* Jeanne Amiel and Stanislas Lyonnet
Neural crest cells (NCC) form in the human embryo during the third to fifth weeks of pregnancy, within the neural folds that delineate the neural plate from the ectoderm. During the fusion of the ...
Neural Crest Stem Cells
Lu Teng and Patricia A. Labosky*
Stem cells are defined by their ability to both self-renew and give rise to multiple lineages in vivo and/or in vitro. As discussed in other chapters in this volume, the embryonic neural crest i...
Neural Crest Cell Plasticity: Size Matters
Lisa L. Sandell and Paul A. Trainor
Patterning and morphogenesis of neural crest-derived tissues within a developing vertebrate embryo rely on a complex balance between signals acquired by neural crest cells in the neuroepithelium durin...
Neural Crest Delamination and Migration: Integrating Regulations of Cell Interactions, Locomotion, Survival and Fate
Jean-Loup Duband
During the entire process of neural crest development from specification till final differentiation, delamination and migration are critical steps where nascent crest cells face multiple challenges:...
Cranial Neural Crest and Development of the Head Skeleton
Robert D. Knight and Thomas F. Schilling
The skeletal derivatives of the cranial neural crest (CNC) are patterned through a combination of intrinsic differences between crest cells and extrinsic signals from adjacent tissues, including endod...
Evolution of the Neural Crest
Alejandro Barrallo-Gimeno and M. Angela Nieto
The recent advances in studies of the neural crest in vertebrates, and the analysis of basal hordates using molecular and embryological approaches, have demonstrated that at least part of the genetic ...
Neural Crest Contribution to the Cardiovascular System
Christopher B. Brown and H. Scott Baldwin
Normal cardiovascular development requires complex remodeling of the outflow tract and pharyngeal arch arteries to create the separate pulmonic and systemic circulations. During remodeling, the outflo...
Transcriptional Regulation at the Neural Plate Border
Thomas D. Sargent
The neural crest (NC) is usually defined as a cell type arising at the border of the neural plate and the epidermis in vertebrate embryos. While accurate, this definition implies that the border exist...
The Genetic Regulation of Pigment Cell Development
Debra L. Silver, Ling Hou and William J. Pavan
Pigment cells in developing vertebrates are derived from a transient and pluripotent population of cells called neural crest. The neural crest delaminates from the developing neural tube and overlying...
Growth Factors Regulating Neural Crest Cell Fate Decisions
Lukas Sommer*
CHAPTER 12 *Corresponding Author: Lukas Sommer—Institute of Cell Biology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH-Hoenggerberg, Zürich, Switzerland, Email: lukas.sommer@cell.biol.ethz.ch Neur...
Specification of Sensory Neuron Cell Fate from the Neural Crest
David W. Raible* and Josette M. Ungos
How distinct cell fates are generated from initially homogeneous cell populations is a driving question in developmental biology. The neural crest is one such cell population that is capable of prod...
Neural Crest Inducing Signals
Martin L. Basch and Marianne Bronner-Fraser
The formation of the neural crest has been traditionally considered a classic example of secondary induction, where signals form one tissue elicit a response in a competent responding tissue. Intera...
