Observations on the early development of the dorsal root ganglia and ventral root in quail embryos

Early development of the dorsal root ganglia and ventral roots in quail embryos was observed by using HNK-1 antibodies. The dorsal root ganglia showed a dumbbell form in the horizontal plane, i.e. one dorsal root ganglion was constituted by two groups arranged craniocaudally. These observations suggest that the complex form of the dorsal root ganglia is brought about by a subsegmentation of the neutral tube and peripheral nerve supply. Further, it was observed that the segmental boundaries of the neural tube, which were indicated by the individual ventral roots, differed from the boundaries indicated by mesodermal segmentation. These findings seem to provide us with a new viewpoint for analyzing the nervous system.