Question

What is the notochord and what is its function?

Answer 1

The notochord is the defining structure of the chordates, and has essential roles in vertebrate development. It serves as a source of midline signals that pattern surrounding tissues and as a major skeletal element of the developing embryo.

Answer 2

Notochord, flexible rodlike structure of mesodermal cells that is the principal longitudinal structural element of chordates and of the early embryo of vertebrates, in both of which it plays an organizational role in nervous system development. In later vertebrate development, it becomes part of the vertebral column.