Abstract
Mouse embryos with a loss-of-function mutation in the gene encoding the receptor tyrosine kinase ErbB4 exhibit misprojections of cranial sensory ganglion afferent axons. Here we analyse ErbB4-deficient mice, and find that morphological differences between wild-type and mutant cranial ganglia correlate with aberrant migration of a subpopulation of hindbrain-derived cranial neural crest cells within the paraxial mesenchyme environment. In transplantation experiments using new grafting techniques in cultured mouse embryos, we determine that this phenotype is non-cell-autonomous: wild-type and mutant neural crest cells both migrate in a pattern consistent with the host environment, deviating from their normal pathway only when transplanted into mutant embryos. ErbB4 signalling events within the hindbrain therefore provide patterning information to cranial paraxial mesenchyme that is essential for the proper migration of neural crest cells.
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Acknowledgements
We thank S. Tsoni for technical assistance; M. Dixon and B. Fritzsch for critically reviewing the manuscript; H. Tidcombe for valuable discussions; D.J. Anderson and Q. Ma for the gift of NeuroD, Neurogenin-1 and Neurogenin-2 plasmids; C. Goridis for the Phox2b plasmid; and M. Wegner for the Sox10 plasmid. P.T. was supported by EMBO and HFSP postdoctoral fellowships. This work was funded by Core MRC Programme support and an EEC Biotechnology Network grant (BIO4 CT-960378) to R.K.
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to M.G.
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Golding, J., Trainor, P., Krumlauf, R. et al. Defects in pathfinding by cranial neural crest cells in mice lacking the neuregulin receptor ErbB4. Nat Cell Biol 2, 103–109 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35000058
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35000058