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	Objective Introduction Protocol   Discussion   Figures Sources	Introduction Traditionally, amphibians have been one of the most widely studied organisms in the field of developmental biology. Two amphibian species often used in development experiments are the Xenopus laevis frog and the Ambystoma mexicanum, or Axolotl salamander. Axolotls are particularly useful for study of the early stages of development because the eggs are large, easy to harvest year round, and can be arrested at various stages of development by storing at 4°C (Gilbert, 2000). One of the most commonly used techniques for observing the fate of cells within early gastrulas and neurulas is to transplant regions, either to locations within the same embryo, or form one embryo to another. In the early twentieth century, Hilde Mangold transplanted rgions of the dorsal lip of an amphibian embryo and observed the structural and developmental implications of the transplants (Gilbert, 2000). Hilde Mangold, along with Hans Spemann, used the similar transplantation techniques to identify the Organizer--later termed the dorsal lip-- along the dorsal side of the embryo. This discovery was a seminal work in developmental biology because it demonsrated some of the first evidence of regulative development, and lent significant support to the argument for epigenesis and against te theory of the homonculus (Spemann, 1929). Since then, several other techniques have been developed. In this experiment, the transplant will occur between albino and wild type (regularly pigmented) embryos. Transplantation between pigmented and non-pigmented embryos will provide an easily visible indicator of the fate of the transplaned cels. In this experiment, the protocols developed by E.S. Wilson and D.L. Lawrence hav been adapted in order to transplant regions of an albino Axolotl embryo and a pigmented embryo (Wilson, 2002, Lawrence, 2000). Because albino embryos are less robust and are more susceptible to being destroyed in the course of the surgery, the albino embryos will serve as the recipient embryo.