Latin American contributions to the neural crest field

Publication date: Available online 4 August 2018Source: Mechanisms of DevelopmentAuthor(s): Gabriel da Silva Pescador, Andrea Gonçalves Trentin, Ricardo Castilho GarcezAbstractThe neural crest (NC) is one of the most fascinating structures during embryonic development. Unique to vertebrate embryos, these cells give rise to important components of the craniofacial skeleton, such as the jaws and skull, as well as melanocytes and ganglia of the peripheral nervous system. Worldwide, several groups have been studying NC development and specifically in the Latin America (LA) they have been growing in numbers since the 1990s. It is important for the world to recognize the contributions of LA researchers on the knowledge of NC development, as it can stimulate networking and improvement in the field. We developed a database of LA publications on NC development using ORCID and PUBMED as search engines. We thoroughly describe all of the contributions from LA, collected in five major topics on NC development mechanisms: i) induction and specification; ii) migration; iii) differentiation; iv) adult NC; and, v) neurocristopathies. Further analysis was done to correlate each LA country with topics and animal models, and to access collaboration between LA countries. We observed that some LA countries have made important contributions to the comprehension of NC development. Interestingly, some LA countries have a topic and an animal model as their strength; in addition, collaboration between...
Source: Mechanisms of Development - Category: Biology Source Type: research