Reversal of developmental competence in inverted amphibian eggs

Abstract

Inverted amphibian embryos were employed for an analysis of pattern formation in early embryogenesis. Axolotl (Ambystoma) and Xenopus eggs were inverted prior to the first cleavage division and permitted to develop upside down to the early gastrulation stage. In both cases the cleavage patterns of the animal and vegetal hemispheres were reversed. By gastrulation, however, developmental arrest began, and no inverted embryos developed beyond neurulation. The state of competence of the animal and vegetal hemisphere cells of inverted embryos was examined in a series of tissue transplantations, usually into genetically marked (albino) hosts. In all cases the developmental competence of the original animal and vegetal hemisphere cells of inverted embryos had been reversed. For example, the egg's original vegetal hemisphere developed into various neural structures. Those observations should eventually be useful in formulating models to account for the manner in which various regions of the amphibian egg cytoplasm generate early embryonic patterns.