Practice Quiz

1. Differentiate the three major derivatives of Ectoderm and identify the organs derived
from each major derivative.

Outer ectoderm gives rise to the epidermis of the skin including

 Hair glands and nails
 Sebaceous glands
 Olfactory epithelium
 Mouth epithelium (anterior pituitary, tooth enamel and cheek epithelium)
 Lens, cornea

Neural ectoderm gives rise to the central nervous system including

 Neurons and neuroglia
 Brain
 Neural pituitary
 Spinal cord
 Motor neurons
 Retina

Neural crest ectoderm are cells that migrate widely and give rise to a rise to a large
variety of structures such as
 Peripheral nervous system (Schwann cells, neuroglial cells, Sympathetic nervous
system, and Parasympathetic nervous system
 Adrenal medulla
 Melanocytes
 Facial cartilage
 Dentine of teeth

2. Discuss the two major ways of converting the neural plate into neural tube.

The neuro-ectoderm or the neural plate is derived from the epiblast and is induced by
the underlying notochord during the third week then late in the third week the neural
plate begins to fold and then converted into the neural groove. By the time the neural
groove deepens it will eventually form into a neural tube.

3. Describe the differentiation of neural tube into various region of central nervous
system.
The differentiation of neural tube into various regions of central nervous system occurs
simultaneously in three different ways. On the gross anatomical level, the neural tube
and its lumen bulge and constrict form the chambers of the brain and the spinal cord.
At the tissue level, the cell populations within the wall of the neural tube rearranged
themselves to form the different functional regions of the brain and the spinal cord.
Lastly on the cellular level, the new epithelial cells themselves differentiate into the
numerous types of nerve cells (neurons) and supportive cells (glia) present in the
body.

4. Explain the migration processes of cells occur in four regions of neural crest.

The neural crest a migratory population of embryonic cells, gives rise to a wide range
of differentiated cell types in the mature vertebrate organism which includes the
melanocytes of the skin. The neural crest cells migrate extensively to generate a
prodigious number of differentiated cell types. This cell types include, the neurons and
glial cells of the sensory, sympathetic, and parasympathetic nervous systems, the
epinephrine-producing cells of the adrenal gland, the pigment containing cells of the
epidermis, and many of the skeletal connective tissue components of the head. The
migration process of cells that occur in the four regions of the neural crest is the
following, the cephalic neural crest, whose cells migrate dorsolaterally to produce the
cranial mesenchyme that differentiates into the cartilage, bone, cranial neurons, glia,
and connective tissues of the face. Drunk neural Crest cells migrate via two paths, the
first is the dorsal pathway, it enters through the dermis for melanocytes in the skin and
hair follicles second is the ventral pathway which enters through the interior half of
each somite to become sensory ganglia, sympathetic and enteric neurons, Schwann
cells, and cells of the andrena medulla. The vagal and sacral neural crest who cells
generate the parasympathetic ganglia of the gut, failure of neural Crest cell migration
from these regions the colon results in the absence of enteric ganglia and thus the
absence of peristaltic movement in the bowels. Lastly is the cardiac neural crest which
is located between the cranial and trunk neural crest, the cardiac neural Crest cells can
develop into melanocytes, neurons, cartilage, and connective tissue in addition, this
region of the neural crest produces the entire musculoconnective tissue wall of the
large arteries as they arise from the heart, as well as contributing to the septum that
separates the pulmonary circulation from the aorta.

5. Discuss the processes included in neural specification and axonal specificity.

Specificity of neuronal connections has focused on two major systems: motor neurons,
whose axons travel from the nerve to a specific muscle, and the optic system, wherein
axons originating in the retina find their way back into the brain. In both cases, the
specificity of axonal connections is seen to unfold in three steps. The first one is the
pathway selection, wherein the axon travel along a route that leads them to a particular
region of the embryo, the second is the target selection, wherein the axons, once they
reached the correct area, recognize, and bind to a set of cells with which they may
form stable connections. Lastly address selection, where in the initial patterns are
refined such that each Axon binds to a small subset (sometimes only one) of its
possible targets. The first 2 processes are independent of neuronal activity. The third
process involves interactions between several active neurons and convert the
overlapping projections into a fine tune pattern of connections.

6. What makes the neural crest pluripotent and cite the importance of in the
development of different organs.

What makes the neural crest pluripotent is that a substantial fraction of neural crest
cells arriving early in the ectoderm are pluripotent cells that can give rise to pigment
cells, to sympathoadrenal sales, two primary sensory neuron precursors and possibly
to other cells which are not identified. One of its importance is that it gives rise to both
ectodermal and mesoderm cell types, they generate a wide variety of cell and tissue
types during embryonic and adult development including cartilage and bone,
connective tissue, pigment, and endocrine cells as well as neurons and glia. Moreover,
during the early stages of neurogenesis, the neural crest cells exert a paracrine
stimulating effect on the development of biotic brain.