Activin can induce the formation of axial structures and is expressed in the hypoblast of the chick

We show that PIF/activin can induce the formation of axial structures including a full-length notochord, segmented somites, and a neural tube in isolated epiblasts from chick blastulae. Using degenerate PCR primers, we have cloned a fragment of the activin β_B chain from chick hypobiast cDNA, and a fragment of the activin β_A chain from chick genomic DNA. Furthermore, we show that in the chick, activin is transcribed precisely when axial mesoderm is being induced. Since exogenous PIF/activin can induce the formation of axial structures and since activin β_B is transcribed at the time and place where the mesodermal axial structures are being induced, we propose that in the chick, activin B is the endogenous inducer of the body axis.