Selective bilateral motor innervation in Xenopus tadpoles with one hind limb

Bilateral innervation of a single hindlimb bud was induced by amputating the other limb bud and disrupting the barriers between the two sides. Though the routes of the crossed nerves were necessarily abnormal, the motor projections that developed subsequently were normal as determined by horseradish peroxidase tracing. The limb therefore appears to be innervated selectively, each region being invaded and/or synapsed with only by motoneurones at particular locations. The numbers of motoneurones surviving after metamorphosis were almost normal on both sides provided the operation was done before motor invasion of the limb bud begins. From this it is argued that the axons were probably guided actively to their correct destinations. Without such guidance, axons would probably not have been able to find their correct termination sites and motoneurons survival would therefore have been depressed. The normal motoneurone numbers also imply that the single limb was supporting twice its usual quota of motoneurones. The hypothesis that motoneurones compete in the limb for survival is therefore not supported.