The induction of the primordial germ cells in the urodeles

Abstract

Xenoplastic recombinates of animal ectodermal caps with the ventral vegetative yolk mass of blastulae of stage 81/2–83/4 ofA. mexicanum, T. alpestris, T. cristatus carnifex andP. waltlii have demonstrated unambiguously that in the urodeles the primordial germ cells—together with other ventro-caudal mesodermal structures—develop from the animal ectodermal moiety of the blastula under an inductive influence emanating from the ventral vegetative yolk mass. Similar recombinates of³H-labeled and unlabeled ectodermal and endodermal components fully support this conclusion. Recombinates of the ventral vegetative yolk mass with different regions of the animal ectodermal hemisphere show that primordial germ cells can be formed by any region of the animal ectodermal hemisphere, including those regions which in normal development will never form them. The number of primordial germ cells formed differs significantly among the various regions, that of the ventral peripheral region being the highest and that of the central, animal region the lowest. The capacity for primordial germ cell formation shows two increasing gradients, one animal-vegetative and the other dorse-ventral (in the peripheral zone). Although accurate measurements could not be made, there seems to be a relation between the number of primordial germ cells formed and the amount of ventro-caudal mesoderm induced. The experiments, moreover, show that notochord differentiation largely or entirely suppresses primordial germ cell formation. Notochord differentiation shows a similar animalvegetative, but an opposite ventro-dorsal increase in frequency (in the peripheral zone) as compared with the capacity for primordial germ cell formation. The notochord-forming gradient in the peripheral regions is mainly due to the inductive action already exerted by the dorsal vegetative yolk mass in the intact blastula prior to isolation and recombination (see control explants). The ventro-dorsal decline in primordial germ cell formation in the peripheral regions is very probably due only to the inhibition of primordial germ cell formation by notochord differentiation (as an expression of dorsal mesoderm induction). Therefore, in the animal ectodermal moiety of the blastula there exists only an animal-vegetative gradient in mesodermal competence. These results make it very likely that in urodeles the primordial germ cells do not arise from predetermined elements such as those demonstrated in anurans, but develop from common, totipotent animal ectodermal cells. The discrepancy in the mode of origin of the primordial germ cells between anurans and urodeles could be due only to pronounced differences in the time of appearance of the germinal cytoplasm (in anurans during oogenesis, in urodeles possibly during determination of the primordial germ cells within the ventro-caudal mesoderm). The differences in site and mode of origin of the primordial germ cells between urodeles and anurans favor a dual phylogenetic origin of the two groups.