What is the Neural Crest?

The neural crest is one of the most widely studied components of the vertebrate embryo. It originates from cells located along the lateral margins of the neural plate.

Neural crest cells break away from the neural plate or neural tube by changing their shape and properties from those of typical neuroepithelial cells to those of mesenchymal cells. They then embark on a remarkable series of migrations.

Neural Crest Discovery and Classification

Wilhelm His (1831-1904), a Swiss embryologist, is credited with the discovery of neural crest cells (Hall, 3). In 1868, he discovered a band of cells sandwiched between the developing neural tube and the future epidermal ectoderm in neurula-stage chick embryos. He identified this group of cells as the source of spinal and cranial ganglia and named them Zwischenstrang-the intermediate cord.

The term neural crest was first used by Arthur Milnes Marshall (1852-1893) in his 1879 paper on the development of the olfactory organ. (Hall, 3) In an 1878 paper on the development of the cranial nerves in chick embryos, Marshall used the term neural ridge for the cells that give rise to cranial and spinal nerve ganglia. Realizing that this term was less descriptive than was desirable, a year later he replaced neural ridge with neural crest. As told in his own words:

I take this opportunity to make a slight alteration in the nomenclature adopted in my former paper. I have there suggested the term neural ridge for the longitudinal ridge of cells which grows out from the reentering angle between the external epiblast and the neural canal, and from which the nerves, whether cranial or spinal arise. Since this ridge appears before closure of the neural canal is effected, there are manifestly two neural ridges, one on each side; but I have also applied the same term, neural ridge, to the single outgrowth formed by the fusion of the neural ridges of the two sides after complete closure of the neural canal is affected, and after the external epiblast has become completely separated from the neural canal. I propose in future to speak of this single median outgrowth as the neural crest, limited the neural ridge to the former acceptation. (Marshall 1879, p. 305, n. 2)

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