Temporal and spatial aspects of the gradual migration of primordial germ cells from the epiblast into the germinal crescent in the avian embryo.

The migration of the PGCs from a stage XIII epiblast into the germinal crescent of a stage 10 chick blastoderm was experimentally investigated. Considerable numbers of PGCs start to come down from the epiblastic layer at stage XII-XIII and continue to do so in relatively smaller numbers until stage 6. The earliest PGCs land on the primary hypoblast and probably are carried by it into the GC. The PGCs that descend at relatively later stages land on the mesodermal wings and are either carried by them passively, or move actively into the GC. After the removal of the lower layer from stage 4 and older blastoderms, there is no regeneration of a GC in the blastoderm. Other consequences of this operation are that the mesodermal wings do not spread anteriorly as in normal controls and the PGCs that are still in the mesodermal domain are trapped. PGCs were found in explants of the lower layer and of the mesoderm. No identifiable PGCs were encountered in explants of the PS.