Developmental patterning deciphered in avian chimeras |
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Authors: | Nicole M Le Douarin |
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Institution: | Nicole M. Le Douarin, Collège de France, 3 rue d'Ulm-75005 Paris, France |
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Abstract: | I started my scientific carer by investigating the development of the digestive tract in the laboratory of a well-known embryologist, Etienne Wolff, then professor at the Collège de France. My animal model was the chick embryo. The investigations that I pursued on liver development together with serendipity, led me to devise a cell-marking technique based on the construction of chimeric embryos between two closely related species of birds, the Japanese quail ( Coturnix coturnix japonica ) and the chick ( Gallus gallus ). The possibility to follow the migration and fate of the cells throughout development from early embryonic stages up to hatching and even after birth, was a breakthrough in developmental biology of higher vertebrates. This article describes some of scientific achievements based on the use of this technique in my laboratory during the last 38 years. |
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Keywords: | cell labeling technique embryonic origin of lymphocytes Hensen's node immune tolerance to self neural crest neurulation |
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