On the origin of cells determined to form skeletal muscle in avian embryos

Pieces of quail embryos from various developmental stages ranging from unincubated blastoderms (before the appearance of a primitive streak) to embryos having formed somites were grafted to the wing buds or into the coelomic cavity of chicken embryos. The grafts, which can be identified on a cellular level by virtue of the prominent nucleolus-associated chromatin, present in the quail and absent in the chicken, were screened after suitable periods of reincubation for the presence or absence of skeletal myotubes containing quail nuclei. Grafts having contributed to such skeletal myotubes were considered as having contained determined myogenic cells at the time of the grafting procedure. Determined myogenic cells appeared first in the primitive streak and in the mesodermal cells formed by the invagination (gastrulation) of epiblastic cells through the primitive streak. This is true for both the head process and the paraxial mesoderm. Epiblastic cells never gave rise to skeletal myotubes. Therefore it can be said, that the onset of myogenic determination coincides with gastrulation. It remains, however, to be established, whether these two events are causally related to one another.