Developmental Plasticity of the Prospective Dermatome and the Prospective Sclerotome Region of an Avian Somite

The ventro-medial wall of a somite gives rise to the sclerotome and then to cartilaginous axial skeleton, while the dorso-lateral wall differentiates into the dermomyotome to form dermal mesenchyme and muscle. Although previous studies suggested pluri-potency of somite cell differentiation, apparent pluri-potency may be the result of migration of predetermined cells. To investigate whether the developmental fate of any region is determined, I isolated fragments of a region of a quail somite and transplanted them into chick embryos. When a fragment of the ventral wall of a quail somite, the prospective sclerotome, was transplanted into a chick embryo between the ectoderm and a newly formed somite, the transplanted quail cells were shown to form myotome and mesenchyme in 4-day chimera embryos and to form muscle and dermal tissue in 9-day chimeras. On the other hand, when a fragment of the dorsal wall of a quail somite, the prospective dermomyotome, was transplanted into a chick embryo between the neural tube and a newly formed somite, the graft gave rise to mesenchyme around the neural tube and notochord and then to vertebral cartilage. Thus the developmental fate of a region of a somite was shown not to be determined at the time of somite segmentation, confirming previous observations.