The neural crest is a transient population of multipotent precursor cells named for its site of origin at the crest of the closing neural folds in vertebrate embryos. Following neural tube closure, these cells become migratory and populate diverse regions throughout the embryo where they give rise to most of the neurons and support cells of the peripheral nervous system (PNS), pigment cells, sm...

A number of regulatory genes have been implicated in neural crest development. However, the molecular mechanism of how neural crest determination is initiated in the exact ectodermal location still remains elusive. Here, we show that the cooperative function of Pax3 and Zic1 determines the neural crest fate in the amphibian ectoderm. Pax3 and Zic1 are expressed in an overlapping manner in the p...

Specification of neural crest progenitors begins during gastrulation at the neural plate border, long before migration or differentiation. Neural crest cell fate is acquired by progressive activation of discrete groups of transcription factors that appear to be highly conserved in vertebrates; however, comprehensive analysis of their expression has been lacking in chick, an important model syst...

RATIONALE Congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS), a unique disorder of respiratory control associated with Hirschsprung disease (HSCR) and tumors of neural crest origin, results from polyalanine repeat expansion mutations in the paired-like homeobox (PHOX)2B gene in more than 90% of cases, and alternative PHOX2B mutations in remaining cases. OBJECTIVES To characterize CCHS-associa...

Primitive  neuroectodermal  tumor  (PNET)  of  kidney  is  an  extremely  rare  renal  neoplasm  with only about fifty reported cases in literature.  Presumably,of neural crest origin, these tumors behave  aggressively  and  carry  a  poor prognosis.  We  report  a  case  of  22-year  old  female  patient complaining of left loin pain with recurrent hematuria for last 3 months. On clinical ex...

Neural crest cells form at the border between the neural plate and the epidermis. The tissue interactions that underlie neural crest cell induction have been investigated primarily by heterotopic grafting experiments in vivo and by conjugating different tissues in vitro. Three models have been proposed to explain the induction of neural crest cells at the neural plate border, i.e. (1) the influ...

During vertebrate development, neural crest cells migrate from the dorsal neural tube and give rise to pigment cells and most peripheral ganglia. To study these complex processes it is helpful to make use of in vitro techniques, but the transient and morphologically ill-defined nature of neural crest cells makes it difficult to isolate a pure population of undifferentiated cells. We have used s...

Cranial neural crest cells differentiate into diverse derivatives including neurons and glia of the cranial ganglia, and cartilage and bone of the facial skeleton. Here, we explore the function of a novel transcription factor of the spalt family that might be involved in early cell-lineage decisions of the avian neural crest. The chicken spalt4 gene (csal4) is expressed in the neural tube, migr...

The neural crest is a multipotent, migratory cell population that contributes to a variety of tissues and organs during vertebrate embryogenesis. Here, we focus on the function of Msx1 and Msx2, homeobox genes implicated in several disorders affecting craniofacial development in humans. We show that Msx1/2 mutants exhibit profound deficiencies in the development of structures derived from the c...

The neural crest is a dynamic progenitor cell population that arises at the border of neural and non-neural ectoderm. The inductive roles of FGF, Wnt, and BMP at the neural plate border are well established, but the signals required for subsequent neural crest development remain poorly characterized. Here, we conducted a screen in primary zebrafish embryo cultures for chemicals that disrupt neu...