Identify molecules that can differentially participate in the formation of rostral placodes.

This project is designed to identify molecules that can differentially participate in the formation of rostral placodes. The 5 chicken rostral placodes are ectodermal thickenings that will become a part of adenohypophysis, olfactory epithelium and lens. Adenohypophysis' placode is in medial position, while olfactory and lens placodes are in lateral, simmetrical positions. These placodes come from a ectodermal common domain which is composed from supposedly equivalent parents. However, our studies indicated that medial precursors have different behaviour from lateral precursors, sugesting that they have different properties. So, we think that mRNA comparison between this 2 precursors populations can help us to characterize the molecular differences between them (i.e. differential expression of receptors or transcription factors).