Int. J. Dev. Biol. 48: 85 - 91 (2004)

https://doi.org/10.1387/ijdb.15272373

Vol 48, Issue 2-3

Special Issue: Skin Development

Skin field formation: morphogenetic events

Published: 1 April 2004

Danielle Dhouailly, Isabel Olivera-Martinez, Ingrid Fliniaux, Sylvain Missier, Jean P Viallet and Jacques Thélu

Equipe Biologie de la Différenciation Epithéliale, UMR CNRS 5538, Institut Albert Bonniot, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France. danielle.dhouailly@ujf-grenoble.fr

Abstract

This chapter is mostly a review of the pioneering work of the Philippe Sengel school in Grenoble carried out in the late sixties and the seventies. The questions raised concerning the morphogenesis of feather tracts were approached by means of microsurgery on chick embryos. P. Sengel and his wife M. Kieny had the feeling that proteins synthesized by the neural tube were required for the formation of feather fields. It was my pleasure to carry on the story from the beginning. Although some clarifications concerning this morphogenesis have been contributed by my group and by a few other laboratories interested in this subject, the most important contributions to recent research have been the elucidation of the nature of the required messages, which will be explored further in other papers in this Issue.

Keywords

chick, cutaneous appendage, dermis, differentiation, epidermis, feather, neural tube, pteryla