On the enigmatic disappearance of Rauber’s layer

The polar trophoblast overlays the epiblast in eutherian mammals and depending on the species, has one of two different fates. It either remains a single layered, thinning epithelium called “Rauber’s layer”, which soon disintegrates, or alternatively, it keeps proliferating, contributing heavily to the population of differentiating, invasive trophoblast cells and, at least in mice, to the induction of gastrulation. While loss of the persistent polar trophoblast in mice leads to reduced induction of gastrulation, we show here that prevention of the loss of the polar trophoblast in cattle results in ectopic domains of the gastrulation marker, BRACHYURY. This phenotype, and increased epiblast proliferation, arose when Rauber’s layer was maintained for a day longer by countering apoptosis through BCL2 overexpression. This suggests that the disappearance of Rauber’s layer is a necessity, presumably to avoid excessive signalling interactions between this layer and the subjacent epiblast. We note that in all species in which the polar trophoblast persists, including humans and mice, ectopic polar trophoblast signalling is prevented via epiblast cavitation which leads to the (pro)amniotic cavity, whose function is to distance the central epiblast from such signalling interactions.