An otherwise endochondral environment was proposed as an evolutionary remnant of the dermal skeleton as seen in fish and early tetrapods [9]. Matsuoka et al. [9] argued that this neural crest-derived muscle attachment pattern is a trait shared by all gnathostomes with SPDP cost paired fins (formulated as the 1326631 “muscle scaffold theory”). This theory suggests that the homology of corresponding muscles may serve as an indicator of homology of skeletal elements receiving attachment sites of those muscles. Particularly, based on the muscle connectivity pattern, the dermal cleithrum of fishes and 374913-63-0 amphibians was homologized to the neural crest population discovered within the endochondral scapula of the mouse [9]. This generalization, and particularly, the idea that the scapula spine of mammals is homologous to the cleithrum (“cell population ghost” of the cleithrum) of amphibians has been widely debated [10,11]. Whether the “muscle scaffold theory” and its consequences are indeed correct or not, depends on whether the cranial aspect of the endochondral, and not only dermal shoulder girdle of other taxa also includes contributions from the neural crest. Studying the origin of the shoulder girdle in salamanders may be critical for addressing this issue, because their shoulder girdle lacks any traces of dermal bones [12,13]. Here we examined the contribution of neural crest to the shoulder girdle in the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum). Anatomically, the shoulder girdle arises as a part of the limb field mesoderm of the flank just behind the branchial arches, where the main streems of migrating neural crest cells pass to form hyobranchial cartilages (Fig. 1). The availability of GFP+ transgenic axolotls [14] allowed a set of transplantation experiments, with which the hypothesis on neural crest contribution to the shoulder girdle in this species could be tested rigorously. Long erm fate mapping was achieved by grafting the neural folds (including the neural crest) from neurulating embryos of GFP xpressing germ ine transgenic axolotls [14] into white (d/d) hosts (see “Materials and Methods”). We show that in the axolotl the neural crest does not contribute cells to the muscular keletal system of the neck and shoulder girdle including the muscle attachment sites, and conclude that this characteristic contradicts the “muscle scaffold theory”. We therefore propose that the population of neural crest cells that participate in building muscle keletal connections of the skull and the endochondral shoulder girdle of the mouse [9] may be a synapomorphy of mammals, which appears long after the earlier population of neural crest cells, that build the dermal shoulder girdle. In axolotl the former is not yet present, while the latter has already disappeared along with the reduction of the dermal bones in salamanders.cartilage, perichondrium, or muscle attachment sites (Fig. 2 g ) including the cranial edge of the scapular blade (Fig. 2 e, f). Since neural crest cells can potentially migrate long distances along the anterior-posterior axis (half the length of the embryo; unpublished observation) and from one left or right fold to the other (up to 30 [15]) we grafted both left and right neural folds including the entire cranial and trunk regions (Fig. 3 a, b). This resulted in labelling of more than 95 of all neural crest cells [16]. Such a strong labeling is visible in Fig. 3 c . Thus, with this type of operation the possibility was excluded that unlabelled neur.An otherwise endochondral environment was proposed as an evolutionary remnant of the dermal skeleton as seen in fish and early tetrapods [9]. Matsuoka et al. [9] argued that this neural crest-derived muscle attachment pattern is a trait shared by all gnathostomes with paired fins (formulated as the 1326631 “muscle scaffold theory”). This theory suggests that the homology of corresponding muscles may serve as an indicator of homology of skeletal elements receiving attachment sites of those muscles. Particularly, based on the muscle connectivity pattern, the dermal cleithrum of fishes and amphibians was homologized to the neural crest population discovered within the endochondral scapula of the mouse [9]. This generalization, and particularly, the idea that the scapula spine of mammals is homologous to the cleithrum (“cell population ghost” of the cleithrum) of amphibians has been widely debated [10,11]. Whether the “muscle scaffold theory” and its consequences are indeed correct or not, depends on whether the cranial aspect of the endochondral, and not only dermal shoulder girdle of other taxa also includes contributions from the neural crest. Studying the origin of the shoulder girdle in salamanders may be critical for addressing this issue, because their shoulder girdle lacks any traces of dermal bones [12,13]. Here we examined the contribution of neural crest to the shoulder girdle in the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum). Anatomically, the shoulder girdle arises as a part of the limb field mesoderm of the flank just behind the branchial arches, where the main streems of migrating neural crest cells pass to form hyobranchial cartilages (Fig. 1). The availability of GFP+ transgenic axolotls [14] allowed a set of transplantation experiments, with which the hypothesis on neural crest contribution to the shoulder girdle in this species could be tested rigorously. Long erm fate mapping was achieved by grafting the neural folds (including the neural crest) from neurulating embryos of GFP xpressing germ ine transgenic axolotls [14] into white (d/d) hosts (see “Materials and Methods”). We show that in the axolotl the neural crest does not contribute cells to the muscular keletal system of the neck and shoulder girdle including the muscle attachment sites, and conclude that this characteristic contradicts the “muscle scaffold theory”. We therefore propose that the population of neural crest cells that participate in building muscle keletal connections of the skull and the endochondral shoulder girdle of the mouse [9] may be a synapomorphy of mammals, which appears long after the earlier population of neural crest cells, that build the dermal shoulder girdle. In axolotl the former is not yet present, while the latter has already disappeared along with the reduction of the dermal bones in salamanders.cartilage, perichondrium, or muscle attachment sites (Fig. 2 g ) including the cranial edge of the scapular blade (Fig. 2 e, f). Since neural crest cells can potentially migrate long distances along the anterior-posterior axis (half the length of the embryo; unpublished observation) and from one left or right fold to the other (up to 30 [15]) we grafted both left and right neural folds including the entire cranial and trunk regions (Fig. 3 a, b). This resulted in labelling of more than 95 of all neural crest cells [16]. Such a strong labeling is visible in Fig. 3 c . Thus, with this type of operation the possibility was excluded that unlabelled neur.
