Development of the orientation of the visuo-tectal map in Xenopus

Eye rudiments from Xenopus embryos of stage 28 or younger were explanted on to the flank of similar embryos with normal or nasotemporally reversed orientation. After some hours the eyes were retransplanted to an orbit of a stage 32/34 embryo, with either normal or reversed nasotemporal orientation. Later the visuotectal projections through the operated eyes were mapped electrophysiologically. The maps obtained were oriented as if the mapping orientation of the eye had already been determined in the donor orbit before the first transplantation; i.e. if normally oriented in the final host orbit the eye gave a normal map, and if the eye was reversed in the final host orbit it gave a reversed map. In only one out of 25 cases did it seem that the orientation of the map could have been influenced by the orientation of the eye on the flank of the intermediate host, and here the evidence was weak. Two eyes gave reduplicated maps and 4 maps were uninterpretable. It was concluded that the orientation of the map is determined before stage 26 and is not altered by information derived from the flank during stages 26-34.