4.4 Article

Facial Transplants in Xenopus laevis Embryos

Journal

JOVE-JOURNAL OF VISUALIZED EXPERIMENTS
Volume -, Issue 85, Pages -

Publisher

JOURNAL OF VISUALIZED EXPERIMENTS
DOI: 10.3791/50697

Keywords

Developmental Biology; Issue 85; craniofacial development; neural crest; Mouth; Nostril; transplantation; Xenopus

Funding

  1. NIH [R01DE021109]
  2. Herschel Smith Graduate Fellowship at Harvard University
  3. F30 individual fellowship through the NIDCR [F30DE022989-01]

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Craniofacial birth defects occur in 1 out of every 700 live births, but etiology is rarely known due to limited understanding of craniofacial development. To identify where signaling pathways and tissues act during patterning of the developing face, a 'face transplant' technique has been developed in embryos of the frog Xenopus laevis. A region of presumptive facial tissue (the Extreme Anterior Domain (EAD)) is removed from a donor embryo at tailbud stage, and transplanted to a host embryo of the same stage, from which the equivalent region has been removed. This can be used to generate a chimeric face where the host or donor tissue has a loss or gain of function in a gene, and/or includes a lineage label. After healing, the outcome of development is monitored, and indicates roles of the signaling pathway within the donor or surrounding host tissues. Xenopus is a valuable model for face development, as the facial region is large and readily accessible for micromanipulation. Many embryos can be assayed, over a short time period since development occurs rapidly. Findings in the frog are relevant to human development, since craniofacial processes appear conserved between Xenopus and mammals.

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