[Role of neural tube in the development of the dorsal plumage in the chick embryo].

Experiments were performed on 2- to 2 1/2-day chick embryos in order to study the role of the neural tube in the development of the dorsal plumage. Pieces of neural tube were excised or replaced by various living or inanimate implants. In other experiments, a screen was interposed between neural tube and somitic mesoderm.The excision resulted in the non-differentiation of a portion of the spinal pteryla: absence of several feather chevrons without disruption of the hexagonal feather pattern, or formation of an apterium or an irregularly feathered area.The replacement by a piece of agar or tantalum or by another tissue (gut, somatopleural mesoderm, somites) led to the same type of dorsal plumage deficiencies as those which were produced by the excisions. Similarly, the replacement by a fragment of neural tube treated at 100° C severely interfered with the development of dorsal plumage. On the contrary, when the neural tube had been exposed to a temperature of 60° C only, the spinal feather pattern was normal or nearly so.The interposition of a solid screen 0.8 to 2 mm in length (tantalum, egg shell membrane, Millipore filter) between neural tube and somitic mesoderm resulted in the formation of a featherless triangular notch in one side of the spinal pteryla. The screen prevented the development of the feathers in the feather field lateral to the screen.These experiments show that the neural tube is indispensable for the differentiation of the dorsal feather pattern. The neural tube cannot be replaced by inanimate objects or by any of the tested tissues, not even by feather-forming ones like somites. Its presence is likely to be necessary for the transformation of dermatomes into predermal cells. When it is absent, dense feather-forming dermis does not form at that level and, consequently, the corresponding portion of the spinal pteryla cannot develop.