Retinoic acid causes a range of embryonic defects, including craniofacial abnormalities, in both birds and mammals and is believed to have a number of roles in normal development. We have previously shown that the distribution of retinoic acid receptor-beta (RAR-beta) transcripts is spatially restricted within the neural-crest-derived upper beak primordia of the chick embryo. We have now used in situ hybridisation to trace the distribution of RAR-beta transcripts during the migration of cranial neural crest cells and during formation of these primordia. RAR-beta transcripts were present in a subset of migrating neural-crest-derived cells in the head of the stage 10 embryo. These cells were situated in pathways followed by cells that migrate from the neural crest overlying the posterior prosencephalic/anterior mesencephalic region of the developing brain. Cells containing RAR-beta transcripts accumulated around the developing eyes and in the regions of the ventral head from which the upper beak primordia later develop. We mapped the distribution of RAR-beta transcripts as the facial primordia were forming, with particular reference to the development of the maxillary primordia. We found that these form in a region of the ventral head that includes the boundary between regions of high and low levels of RAR-beta transcripts. The boundary between these two groups of cells persisted as the maxillary primordia developed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Retinoic acid is a metabolite of vitamin A that can act as a signalling molecule in a number of developmental systems. Retinoic acid is also known to be teratogenic in mammals, causing a range of defects including abnormalities in craniofacial development. Exposure of the developing chick face to retinoic acid released slowly from a bead implanted in the wing bud results in a specific facial defect, in which outgrowth of the frontonasal mass is inhibited. This results in clefting of the primary palate and absence of the upper beak. To investigate the role of nuclear retinoic acid receptors in normal and abnormal chick face morphogenesis, we isolated chick retinoic acid receptor-beta (RAR-beta) cDNA clones and probed northern blots of RNA isolated from chick embryos at stages 22, 24 and 25 and from adults. RAR-beta transcripts of 2.8 and 3.5 kb were present in several regions of the embryo, including the facial primordia, and were also present at much lower levels in adult tissues. In situ hybridisation showed that RAR-beta transcripts were present in all of the facial primordia at embryonic stages 20, 24 and 28, but that their distribution was not uniform. Transcripts were abundant in the lateral nasal processes, at the edges and corners of the frontonasal mass and in the anterior part of the maxillary primordia. Lower levels were present elsewhere. Treatment of stage 20 embryos with retinoic acid altered the distribution of RAR-beta transcripts in the maxillary primordia, such that high levels of transcripts were present throughout, rather than being confined to the anterior part. This change was detectable at stage 24, before any alterations in the morphology of the facial primordia were apparent. By stage 28, when the morphology of the facial primordia was clearly abnormal, there were more widespread changes in the distribution of RAR-beta transcripts. These results show that RAR-beta transcripts are particularly concentrated in regions of the primordia that give rise to the upper beak, the development of which is specifically affected by retinoic acid. In addition, they demonstrate that retinoic acid can induce changes in the pattern of expression of RAR-beta transcripts in vivo.

Retinoic acid (RA) affects differentiation and morphogenesis in various developmental systems and is believed to act through nuclear RA receptors that belong to the steroid/thyroid hormone family of ligand-binding transcription factors. Three closely related receptors, RAR-alpha, -beta and -gamma, with distinct expression patterns, have been identified and a fourth receptor, hRXR-alpha, which responds to RA but which has low homology to RAR-alpha, -beta and -gamma, was recently discovered. Here we report the isolation of a cDNA clone encoding a chicken homologue of hRXR-alpha (cRXR) and show that a cRXR transcript of 2.5 kb is expressed in a range of embryonic chick tissues. By in situ hybridization to sections from stage 24 and stage 27 chick embryos, we show that cRXR transcripts are expressed at high levels in the liver and in elements of the developing peripheral nervous system derived from the neural crest, including dorsal root ganglia, cranial ganglia, enteric ganglia and peripheral nerve tracts. At stage 16, in the posterior trunk region, cRXR transcripts are expressed by cells in the neural crest and in neural crest cells migrating into the sclerotome, indicating that neural crest cells express cRXR transcripts before overt differentiation into peripheral nervous tissue. This distribution suggests a novel role for RA in the developing peripheral nervous system, mediated by cRXR. In addition, it identifies cRXR as a marker for a specific population of neural-crest-derived cells.

Ectoderm inhibits the formation of cartilage by chick wing bud mesenchyme in micromass culture. This suggests that the pattern of cartilage formation in the limb bud may result from a restriction of cartilage cell differentiation to the limb bud core as cells leave the progress zone. We have used in situ hybridization to investigate whether ectodermal inhibition in micromass culture occurs at the level of gene transcription. We found that ectoderm completely inhibited the accumulation of cartilage-specific type II collagen transcripts in the mesenchyme cells, whilst the level of type I collagen transcripts was unaffected. Morphometric analysis of electron micrographs revealed that inhibition of chondrogenesis in micromass culture was not preceded by cell flattening. In fact, a rounded cell shape was found not to be a prerequisite for cartilage cell differentiation in micromass.

Impermeable barriers were inserted into the stage-20 to -21 leg bud to test whether or not such an interruption of diffusion of the proposed morphogen from the polarizing zone would result in failure of leg elementsto develop anterior to the barrier. Tantalum foil was placed at somite levels 30/31 or mid-31 through thedorsoventral extent of the leg bud separating anterior from posterior mesoderm and ectodermal ridge. In the resulting legs, structures developed anterior to the level of the barrier. For example, legs with foil at the 30-/31-somite level developed digits 1 and 2 . We conclude that either the barrier is not an effective block of diffusion of polarizing zone morphogen or that the influence of the polarizing zone is not required fordetermination of leg structures at these stages.

Currently the chick leg bud or its components are being used extensively to study questions in development. Although fate maps of the leg, similar to that developed by Saunders (1948) for the wing, have been available (Hampé, 1957 a , 1959), no study of the proximodistal sequence of the specification of leg structures exists. Such a sequence developed fot the wing by removal of the apical ectodermal ridge at successive stages (Saunders, 1948; Summerbell, 1974), has proven useful to the study of wing development. In this paper, we present a similar proximodistal sequence for the chick leg including the same developmental stage range as that of the wing sequence.

Recent experiments, in which barriers were inserted between anterior and posterior tissues of the chick wing bud, resulted in deletion of structures anterior to the barrier (Summerbell, 1979). From these data it was concluded that blockage of morphogen from the polarizing zone by the barrier resulted in the observed failure of specification of anterior structures. We suggest an alternative interpretation, viz. the interruption of the apical ridge by the barrier caused the deletions. This hypothesis was tested by removal of increasing lengths of ridge. This was done beginning at either the anterior or posterior junction of the wing bud with the body wall and proceeding posteriorly or anteriorly, respectively, to each half-somite level between 16/17 and 19/20. With removal of progressively greater lengths of anterior ridge, more anterior limb elements failed to develop. These data were used to construct a map of the ridge responsible for each digit. To test our hypothesis we removed posterior sections of apical ridge, as described above. Removal of posterior ridge to a level which was expected to allow outgrowth of digits anterior to the level of removal resulted in wings without digits in the majority of cases. An exception occurred when ridge posterior to the mid-19 somite level was removed. In almost half of these cases digits 2 and 3 did develop. In most cases the retention of only a half-somite piece of ridge with all other ridge removed, also resulted in deletion of all digits. Again the exception occurred when ridge posterior to somite level mid-19 and anterior to level 18/19 was removed, leaving only that ridge between somite level 18/19 and mid-19. In many of these cases digit 3 did develop. We conclude from these data that, in the wing bud, ridge anterior to the mid-19 somite level must be connected to more posterior ridge to function. The leg ridge does not exhibit the asymmetrical, low anterior, high posterior configuration, which appears in the wing. Because the leg ridge is symmetrically high anteriorly and posteriorly, we questioned whether or not leg would also require a continuity between anterior and posterior ridge for anterior ridge to function. It did not. When posterior ridge was removed, structures developed under remaining anterior ridge and the elements which developed were complementary to those which developed after anterior ridge removal to the same somite level. Those leg elements, which failed to develop, were truncated at the appropriate proximodistal levels as indicated by the fate map we have constructed for the leg. The data reported here do not rule out a role for the polarizing zone in specification of anterior structures. It is apparent that posterior ridge removal in the wing results in loss of structures anterior to the removal. However, this is not true for the leg.