Myogenic cell movement in the developing avian limb bud in presence and absence of the apical ectodermal ridge (AER)

Fragments of quail wing bud containing myogenic cells of somitic origin and fragments of quail sphlanchopleural tissue were introduced into the interior of the wing bud of fowl embryo hosts. No movement of graft into host tissue occurred in the control, but myogenic cells from the quail wing bud fragments underwent long migrations in an apical direction to become incorporated in the developing musculature of the host. When the apical ectodermal ridge (AER), together with some subridge mesenchyme, was removed at the time of grafting, no such cell migration occurred. The capacity of grafted myogenic cells to migrate in the presence of AER persists to H.H. stage 25, when myogenesis has begun, but premyogenic cells in the somites, which normally migrate out into the early limb bud, do not migrate when somite fragments are grafted into the wing bud. Coelomic grafts of apical and proximal wing fragments showed that apical sections of quail wing buds become invaded by myogenic cells of the host, but grafts from proximal wing bud regions do not.