placode

Noun

placode (plural placodes)

1. (comparative) A platelike thickening of the epithelial layer of an embryo from which an organ, especially a sense organ, develops.
   • The placodes are localized thickenings of the cephalic surface ectoderm. Each placode is formed from a group of cells which gives rise to a specific organ with a given specialized function.1974, Herbert Tuchmann-Duplessis, G. David, P. Haegel, Illustrated Human Embryology, Volumes 1-3, Springer, page 94
   • The neural crest cell bodies become more distant from the placode, but their cell processes permeate the increasingly fibrillar extracellular matrix subjacent to the placode.1978, Charles Russell Bardeen, Irving Hardesty, John Lewis Bremer, Edward Allen Boyden (editors), The Anatomical Record, Volume 191, A. R. Liss, page 450