Initial closure of the mesencephalic neural groove in the chick embryo involves a releasing zipping‐up mechanism

According to a traditional viewpoint, initial closure of the anterior neural groove involves bilateral elevation of the edges of the neural plate, flattening of the midline area, subsequent convergence of the dorsal neural folds, and finally adhesion and fusion of the medial fold edges. In a transverse view, the shape of the neural groove thereby changes from V > U > toppled C > O. This sequence implicates that the neural groove is wide almost from its inception. In the present study, a new mechanism of initial closure is proposed, based on observations in living chick embryos and on light and scanning electron microscopic observations during neurulation in the presumptive mesencephalic region. The medial part of the neural plate invaginates in ventral direction. The walls of the arising neural groove appose, beginning in the depth, and make subsequent contact. During continued invagination the neural walls extend in ventral direction, the apposition/contact zone shifts in dorsal direction up to the neural folds and the neural walls separate ventrally, resulting in the incipient neural tube lumen. The mechanism is best compared with a zipping‐up releasing model. In a transverse view, the shape of the neural groove changes from V > Y > I > O. While, according to the traditional view, the neural folds have to converge from a distance in order to contact each other, in the present mechanism the walls and folds are sequentially in contact by the ventro‐dorsal zipping‐up mechanism, thereby avoiding the possibility of mismatch of the neural folds. The above process is initiated over a considerable longitudinal distance along the neural plate, but only at the mesencephalic level does the dorsal shift of the contact zone become complete. At other levels of the neuraxis, the contact zone releases prematurely and the neural walls become widely separated well before their dorsal neural folds are in contact. These folds have to converge, therefore, in order to close, but their matching is facilitated by the alignment of the previously contacted neural folds at the mesencephalic level as well as by guidance underneath the vitelline membrane. Dev. Dyn. 209:333–341, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.