part of embryo animal cap 2010-08-20T08:11:36Z BTO:0004724 BrendaTissueOBO In Xenopus embryos the animal cap, which is the area around the animal pole of the blastula, is destined to form the ectoderm during normal development. However, these cells retain pluripotentiality and upon exposure to specific inducers, the animal cap can differentiate into neural, mesodermal, and endodermal tissues. In this sense, the cells of the animal cap are equivalent to mammalian embryonic stem cells. mgr