Journal
JOURNAL OF ANATOMY
Volume 220, Issue 6, Pages 591-602Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL
DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2012.01497.x
Keywords
annulus fibrosus; intervertebral disc; notochord; nucleus pulposus; Pax1; sclerotome; segmentation; somite; vertebral column
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Funding
- Anatomical Society Research Studentship
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We have carried out a series of experimental manipulations in the chick embryo to assess whether the notochord, neural tube and spinal nerves influence segmental patterning of the vertebral column. Using Pax1 expression in the somite-derived sclerotomes as a marker for segmentation of the developing intervertebral disc, our results exclude such an influence. In contrast to certain teleost species, where the notochord has been shown to generate segmentation of the vertebral bodies (chordacentra), these experiments indicate that segmental patterning of the avian vertebral column arises autonomously in the somite mesoderm. We suggest that in amniotes, the subdivision of each sclerotome into non-miscible anterior and posterior halves plays a critical role in establishing vertebral segmentation, and in maintaining left/right alignment of the developing vertebral elements at the body midline.
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