Premigratory and migratory neural crest cells are multipotent in vivo.
The neural crest (NC) is an embryonic stem/progenitor cell population that generates a diverse array of cell lineages, including peripheral neurons, myelinating Schwann cells, and melanocytes, among others. However, there is a long-standing controversy as to whether this broad developmental perspective reflects in vivo multipotency of individual NC cells or whether the NC is comprised of a heterogeneous mixture of lineage-restricted progenitors. Here, we resolve this controversy by performing in vivo fate mapping of single trunk NC cells both at premigratory and migratory stages using the R26R-Confetti mouse model. By combining quantitative clonal analyses with definitive markers of differentiation, we demonstrate that the vast majority of individual NC cells are multipotent, with only few clones contributing to single derivatives. Intriguingly, multipotency is maintained in migratory NC cells. Thus, our findings provide definitive evidence for the in vivo multipotency of both premigratory and migrating NC cells in the mouse.
Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Arianna
A
Baggiolini
Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Sandra
S
Varum
Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
José María
JM
Mateos
Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Damiano
D
Bettosini
Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Nessy
N
John
Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Mario
M
Bonalli
Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Urs
U
Ziegler
Department of Physiological Genomics, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, 80336 Munich, Germany.
Leda
L
Dimou
Hubrecht Institute, KNAW and University Medical Center Utrecht, Uppsalalaan 8, 3584 CT Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Hans
H
Clevers
Institute of Mathematics, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Reinhard
R
Furrer
Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: lukas.sommer@anatom.uzh.ch.
Lukas
L
Sommer
D000818:Animals; D000943:Antigens, Differentiation / Q000378:metabolism*; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000502:physiology*; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D039902:Multipotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D009432:Neural Crest / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism*
D000943:Antigens, Differentiation