M Coltey

Lateral and Axial Signals Involved in Avian Somite Patterning: A Role for BMP4

In vertebrates, muscles of the limbs and body wall derive from the lateral compartment of the embryonic somites, and axial muscles derive from the medial compartment. Whereas the mechanisms that direct patterning of somites along the dorsoventral axis are beginning to be understood, little is known about the tissue interactions and signaling molecules that direct somite patterning along the mediolateral axis. We report the identification of a specific marker for the lateral somitic compartment and its early derivatives, cSim1, an avian homolog of the Drosophila single minded gene. Using this marker, we provide evidence that specification of the lateral somitic lineage results from the antagonistic actions of a diffusible medializing signal from the neural tube and a diffusible lateralizing signal from the lateral plate mesoderm, and we implicate bone morphogenetic protein 4(BMP4) in directing this lateralization.

Ontogeny of T Cells and a Third Lymphocyte Lineage in the Chicken

Comparative analysis of immune system development in birds and mammals revealed that development of lymphoid stem cells proceeds along T and B cell lines (Cooper et al. 1965; Moore and Owen 1967). In order to begin T cell development, blood-borne stem cells in birds periodically enter the epithelial thymus in response to locally- produced chemoattractants (Le Douarin 1978; Jotereau and Le Douarin 1982). Stem cell colonization of the amphibian and mammalian thymuses also appears to occur in waves (Turpen and Smith 1989; Jotereau et al. 1987).