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Updated: Aug 16, 2026
Isolation of Embryonic Tissues and Formation of Quail-Chicken Chimeric Organs Using The Thymus Example
Published on: February 16, 2019
The chick/quail transplantation model: discovery of the isthmic organizer center
1INSERM U106, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, Pavillon de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent, 75651 Paris CEDEX 13, France. cuca.alvarado@wanadoo.fr
This paper summarizes chick/quail transplantation experiments performed in the INSERM U106 by Alvarado-Mallart's group from 1989 to 2002. First, it will present the various steps leading us to demonstrate that, at stage 10 of Hamburger and Hamilton, the avian neuroepithelium is still competent to change its fate influenced by environmental inductive factors and that these factors emanate from the cerebellar neuroepithelium; then, it will be briefly reported, experiments aimed to characterize the genetic cascade involved in the formation of the midbrain/hindbrain boundary and the specification of the meso-isthmic-cerebellar domain.
This paper summarizes chick/quail transplantation experiments performed in the INSERM U106 by Alvarado-Mallart's group from 1989 to 2002. First, it will present the various steps leading us to demonstrate that, at stage 10 of Hamburger and Hamilton, the avian neuroepithelium is still competent to change its fate influenced by environmental inductive factors and that these factors emanate from the cerebellar neuroepithelium; then, it will be briefly reported, experiments aimed to characterize the genetic cascade involved in the formation of the midbrain/hindbrain boundary and the specification of the meso-isthmic-cerebellar domain.
