Differentiation and patterning of cells originating in the zebrafish neuroectoderm

Loading...

View/Download File

Lund_umn_0130M_13695.pdf (5.5 MB)

Persistent link to this item

http://purl.umn.edu/156912

Statistics

View Statistics

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Title

Differentiation and patterning of cells originating in the zebrafish neuroectoderm

Authors

Lund, Caroline E.

Published Date

2013-05

Publisher

Type

Thesis or Dissertation

Abstract

Vertebrate nervous system development requires a complex series of events to transform a flat neuroepithelium into complex structures containing specialized cell types. The anterior neuroectoderm gives rise to the brain and is the origin for some of the first neurons that differentiate. It is also the origin of the cranial neural crest cells that form craniofacial features. This thesis focuses on the embryonic development of two tissues that arise from the zebrafish anterior neuroectoderm, the epithalamus, a region of the dorsal forebrain, and the mandible, the lower jaw. Early in development, the flat neural plate folds into a neural tube. The pineal gland, an organ involved with circadian rhythms, begins as two precursor domains at the lateral edges of the neural plate that converge into a single tissue when the neural tube closes. The pineal gland, along with the parapineal gland and habenula nuclei, form the epithalamus in the dorsal forebrain. In embryos with open neural tubes, the left and the right sides of the pineal and surrounding epithalamus are widely spaced. I found that despite this displacement, pineal cell types differentiate normally and initiate their rhythmic function. Conversely left-right asymmetry in the epithalamus was lost; both sides exhibited left-sided characteristics. Further, this loss of asymmetry in the epithalamus was correlated to severity in neural tube defects. Embryos with left isomerism had significantly wider pineal anlage domains than those with normal or reversed asymmetry. Cranial neural crest cells from the dorsal neural tube migrate to form craniofacial structures, including the cartilaginous precursor to the mandible, Meckel's cartilage. The bigtime (bti) mutant exhibits reductions in mandibular development. I found that although cranial neural crest cells localize normally to the lower jaw region in these mutants, they fail to differentiate into functional chondrocytes that secrete a sufficient amount of collagenous extracellular matrix.

Keywords

Differentiation

Neural crest

Neural tube

Nodal signaling

Patterning

Pineal gland

Description

University of Minnesota M.S. thesis. May 2013. Major: Integrated Biosciences. Advisor: Dr. Jennifer O. Liang. 1 computer file (PDF); vi, 99 pages.

Related to

Replaces

License

Collections

Master's Theses (Plan A and Professional Engineering Design Projects)

Series/Report Number

Funding information

Isbn identifier

Doi identifier

Previously Published Citation

Suggested citation

Lund, Caroline E.. (2013). Differentiation and patterning of cells originating in the zebrafish neuroectoderm. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/156912.

Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.