Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a dynamic process that produces migratory cells from epithelial precursors. However, EMT is not binary; rather it results in migratory cells which adopt diverse strategies including collective and individual cell migration to arrive at target destinations. Of the many embryonic cells that undergo EMT, the vertebrate neural crest is a particularly good example which has provided valuable insight into these processes. Neural crest cells from different species often adopt different migratory strategies with collective migration predominating in anamniotes, whereas individual cell migration is more prevalent in amniotes. Here, we will provide a perspective on recent work toward understanding the process of neural crest EMT focusing on how these cells undergo collective and individual cell migration.

上皮间质转化 (EMT) 是一个动态过程，从上皮前体产生迁移细胞。然而，EMT 不是二进制的；相反，它导致迁移细胞采用多种策略，包括集体和个体细胞迁移以到达目标目的地。在经历 EMT 的许多胚胎细胞中，脊椎动物神经嵴是一个特别好的例子，它提供了对这些过程的宝贵见解。来自不同物种的神经嵴细胞通常采用不同的迁移策略，集体迁移在羊膜动物中占主导地位，而单个细胞迁移在羊膜动物中更为普遍。在这里，我们将提供一个视角，了解最近的工作，以了解神经嵴 EMT 的过程，重点是这些细胞如何经历集体和个体细胞迁移。