Fluorescent quail embryos reveal key protein controlling neural tube development

Each year, thousands of children enter the world bearing the consequences of a developmental failure that occurs before most pregnancies are even known — the neural tube, meant to fold shut and become the brain and spinal cord, does not close. In laboratories where quail embryos glow under fluorescent light, researchers have now identified that a protein called PRICKLE1 independently governs the shaping of this structure, working through mechanisms distinct from what science had previously assumed. The discovery does not yet heal anyone, but it clarifies the molecular terrain where healing mig