Cell line segregation during peripheral nervous system ontogeny.

The peripheral nervous system of vertebrates arises from the neural crest and the ectodermal placodes. Construction of quail-chick chimaeras has provided significant information on the migration and fate of the neural crest and placodal cells. Transplantation of neural crest tissue to various sites in these chimaeras has demonstrated that the differentiation of neural crest cells is controlled by environmental influences during their migration and, particularly, during gangliogenesis. Experiments with in vitro and monoclonal antibody techniques have shown that these environmental cues act on a heterogeneous population of neural crest cells whose developmental potencies are partly restricted to definite differentiation pathways.