Autoneuralization in the amphibian ectoderm--a species-specific and stage-specific phenomenon.

Ectoderm from Ambystoma is especially prone to undergo 'autoneuralization'. This assertion has led to the maxim that ectoderm from this species is unsuitable for studying cell differentiation. Here we report that the degree of neuralization in cultured explants is stage-dependent. Control explants from blastulae (stage 8-9) show no neuralization, while explants treated with LiCl (10 mM) give rise to neuralization in about 70% of the cases. This difference between control and experiment decreases during gastrulation, in late gastrulae (stage 12) it is more or less negligible. Ectoderm from Cynops pyrrhogaster reacts like that of Ambystoma when exposed to LiCl, but like Triturus ectoderm it is insensitive to cyclic nucleotides.