A melanoblast is a

precursor cell In cell biology, a precursor cell, also called a blast cell or simply blast, is a partially differentiated cell, usually referred to as a unipotent cell that has lost most of its stem cell properties. A precursor cell is also known as a pro ...

of a

melanocyte Melanocytes are melanin-producing neural crest-derived cells located in the bottom layer (the stratum basale) of the skin's epidermis, the middle layer of the eye (the uvea), the inner ear, vaginal epithelium, meninges, bones, and heart. ...

. These cells migrate from the

trunk neural crest The trunk neural crest or truncal neural crest is one of the regions of neural crest in the embryo. The trunk neural crest lies between the vagal and sacral neural crest and gives rise to two groups of cells. One group migrates dorsolateral and po ...

cells (in terms of axial level from neck to posterior end) dorsolaterally between the

ectoderm The ectoderm is one of the three primary germ layers formed in early embryonic development. It is the outermost layer, and is superficial to the mesoderm (the middle layer) and endoderm (the innermost layer). It emerges and originates from t ...

and dorsal surface of the

somite The somites (outdated term: primitive segments) are a set of bilaterally paired blocks of paraxial mesoderm that form in the embryonic stage of somitogenesis, along the head-to-tail axis in segmented animals. In vertebrates, somites subdivide in ...

References

Pigments Biomolecules Pigmentation {{developmental-biology-stub

See also

References