ABSTRACT
An experiment is described whose results strengthen the classical conclusion, due to Spemann and co-workers, that amphibian gastrulation movements are co-ordinated and controlled by properties intrinsic to the invaginating mesodermal zone, rather than by interaction between this and any field of cell-guiding information, symmetrically disposed about the presumptive head ectodermal region in the animal hemisphere of the blastula/ gastrula. The possibility remains, however, that the field of information coming to reside in the marginal mesodermal zone, is itself originally set up utilizing the animal pole as an origin, as well as the presumptive organizer site.
Experiments are then described where whole organizer apices, and also subapical squares of dorsal mesoderm from stage-10 donors, are implanted with presumptive polarity reversed 180° relative to that of the host. It is found that reasonably extensive migration, on the part of the graft and the influenced host tissue, is required for the individuation of recognizable axial structure, and that such migration is often prevented in reversed implants due to a retention of autonomous polarity in host and graft.
Reasons are suggested for the apparently greater autonomy, in this respect, of apical organizer plugs, but evidence is given that autonomy is nevertheless expressed even by squares of dorsal presumptive mesoderm of side ca. 0·1 mm. The significance of this observation, for theory concerning the nature of the cellular properties involved in the maintenance of embryonic fields, is discussed.
