Relationship between gene expression domains of Xsnail, Xslug, and Xtwist and cell movement in the prospective neural crest of Xenopus

The markers Xslug, Xsnail, and Xtwist all are expressed in the presumptive neural folds and are thought to delineate the presumptive neural crest. How ever, their interrelationship and relative spatiotemporal distributions are not well understood. Here, we present a detailed in situ hybridization ana lysis of the relative patterns of expression of these transcription factors from gastrulation through neurulation and post-neural crest migration. The three genes mark the prospective neural crest and roof plate, coming on se quentially, with Xsnail preceding Xslug preceding Xtwist. By combining gene expression analysis with a fate map of the same region using DiI labeling, we determined the correspondence between early and late domains of gene ex pression. At the beginning of gastrulation, Xsnail is present in a unique d omain of expression in a lateral region of the embryo in both superficial a nd deep layers of the ectoderm, as are Xslug and Xtwist. During gastrulatio n and neurulation, the superficial layer moves faster toward the dorsal mid line than the deep layer, producing a relative shift in these cell populati ons. By early neurula stage, the Xsnail domain is split into a medial domai n in the superficial ectoderm (fated to become the roof plate) and a latera l domain in the deep layer of the ectoderm (fated to become neural crest). Xsnail is down-regulated in the most anterior neural plate and up-regulated in the posterior neural plate. Our results show that changes in the expres sion of Xsnail, Xslug, and Xtwist are a consequence of active cell movement in some regions coupled with dynamic changes in gene expression in other r egions. (C) 2000 Academic Press.