Spemann-Mangold Grafts

In 1924, Hans Spemann and Hilde Mangold (née Pröscholdt) published their famous work describing the transplantation of dorsal blastopore lip of one newt gastrula embryo onto the ventral side of a host embryo at the same stage. They performed these grafts using two newt species with different pigmentation (Triturus taeniatus and Triturus cristatus) to follow the fate of the grafted tissue. These experiments resulted in the development of conjoined twins attached through their belly. Because of the difference in embryo pigmentation between the two Triturus species, they determined that the bulk of the secondary embryo arose from the host embryo while the grafted tissue per se gave increase to the notochord and a few somitic cells. This meant that the dorsal blastopore lip was able to organize an almost complete embryo out of ventral tissue. The dorsal blastopore lip is now called the Spemann-Mangold organizer. Here, we describe a simple yet efficient protocol to perform these grafts using the anuran Xenopus laevis.