Spatiotemporal profiling of neural crest cells in the common wall lizardPodarcis muralis

Background Neural crest cells (NCCs) are migratory embryonic stem cells that give rise to a diverse set of cell types. Here we describe the dynamic distribution of NCCs in developing embryos of the common wall lizard Podarcis muralis inferred from ten markers. Our aim is to provide insights into the NCC development of lacertid lizards and to infer evolutionary modifications by comparisons to other tetrapods. Results NCC migration is ongoing at oviposition, following three streams in the head and multiple in the trunk. From 21ss, we observe expression patterns indicating the beginning of differentiation towards mesenchymal and neuronal fates. By 35ss, migration is restricted to caudal levels, and fully differentiated chromaffin cells are observed. Conclusions We find that some markers show patterns that differ from other tetrapods. For example, the antibody HNK-1 labels three NCC streams from the hindbrain while some comparable reptile studies describe four. However, the information emerging from all markers combined shows that the overall spatiotemporal distribution of NCCs in the common wall lizard is largely conserved with that of other tetrapods. Our study highlights the dynamic nature of seemingly canonical marker genes and provides the first description of spatiotemporal NCC dynamics in a lacertid lizard.